


Born to be Wild 4: Generation Gap

by Ultra



Series: Born to be Wild [4]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Awkward Conversations, Babies, Drama & Romance, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Family Dynamics, Family Feels, Fights, Flying, Gen, Generation Gap, Guns, Running Away, Spaceships, Teen Romance, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-11
Updated: 2010-10-11
Packaged: 2019-08-07 02:08:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 47,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16399376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Several years since 'New Beginnings' - River and Jayne's teenaged son, Daniel, is finding it hard to fit in, the little kids are causing mayhem, and Inara has a surprise for Mal he may not like.





	1. Chapter 1

“Come on, Pa!” the boy whined like a baby as he followed Jayne through the halls of Serenity, not doing his argument any favours at all. “You been calling me a little man since I was ten years old. I ain’t so little anymore, should just be man by now.”

“Ain’t havin’ this fight with you no more, Danny!” his father yelled back over his shoulder as he headed on up to the bridge where he was supposed to meet Mal. “Go back to your room like I told ya, afore I lose my gorram temper!”

“Da shiong la se la ch’wohn tian,” the young man muttered as he stopped following Jayne but didn’t exactly do as he was told by going back to his bunk either. “I’m seventeen years old!” he complained, albeit to himself as he slammed an angry hand against the ships wall and immediately regretted the action as pain shot through his fingers and up the length of his arm.

It didn’t solve anything, lashing out and such. He should know that by now, after his Ma and Pa both had proved it a dozen times over, not to mention the rest of the crew. As smart as Uncle Mal was he had a tendency to react with his fists first and brain later sometimes. Sure, it was sometimes hilarious to hit a man with a closed fist, even if’n it weren’t a smart move, not that Danny had ever done so himself. Nope, Danny Cobb, at seventeen, was still seen as one of the kids onboard and never allowed to help with any job where any violence might take place. Hauling cargo he was permitted to do, fetching and carrying, playing lookout, all of that, but never to get in a fight, side by side with his family, like he wanted.

Worst of it was, the little kids got all the real attention. He didn’t blame his sister or cousins for the fact they needed more fussin’ but it bugged Danny to no end that he didn’t fit anywhere. Too grown up to be a kid, but not grown up enough to be taken serious as a man.

“Are you feeling okay, Daniel?” said a voice and it was only now the boy realised he’d landed up right outside the infirmary.

His feet had just took him wherever, wanderin’ around with no real direction in mind. Now here was Uncle Simon asking if he was okay and staring at his hand... Danny looked down then and noticed the bruise already forming across his knuckles where he’d smacked the hull.

“It’s nothin’,” he said, shaking the ache out of his fingers. “Just a dumb accident,” he shrugged, turning to walk away, and running slap bang into two of the kids.

“What are you two doin’ now?” he asked as Jessy ran around the back of him.

Gripping onto his legs for all she was worth and gasping for air where she’d been running so fast, she couldn’t give her brother any decent answer, but that he got as Alyssa came into sight, bolting after her friend, dark red curls bouncing all over as she came hurtling through the galley towards Danny.

“She has it and it’s mine!” the little girl complained, running around to get to Jessy who easily ducked away.

The two little girls of six and seven damn near knocked the much older boy flyin’ as they used him for a hiding place and shield both, tugging at his limbs as they bolted this way and that around him.

“Jessy, what did you take?” he asked her, but his sister didn’t answer, just continued dancing around him, with Alyssa dodging back and forth trying to get to her. “Okay,” he said then, tired of this whole thing within a moment.

Reaching down, he easily lifted Jessy clear off the floor and high aloft in his arms. She squealed with surprise as her feet left the ground but laughed when she realised her brother had only helped her cause by getting her further out of Alyssa’s reach.

“Jessamine Cobb, what you got that ain’t yours?” he asked her then, ceasing her giggling in a moment as she turned grumpy and serious at the sound of his tone.

“Ain’t hers neither,” said the little girl definitely. “Lyssa don’t know how to share!” she poked out her tongue at the red-head stood below.

“Alyssa?” Danny looked to her next. “What’s this all about?” he checked with her.

“Nothin’,” she lied quite obviously and Danny soon grew tired of the whole thing, besides he had by now figured out everything he needed to know from the silence that followed.

With the two girls quiet he could hear himself think, and after that he could hear everybody else think. In a moment Jessy’s face fell as she caught the wave of images floating between her brothers mind and her own.

“Uh-oh,” she said, scrambling to get away from her brothers grip, quite pointlessly as he was never going to let her go.

Lowering her towards the ground, in one fast move he had her treasured item from her pocket before her feet ever hit the deck.

“This is what you were fightin’ over!” he practically exploded, startling Alyssa and Jessamine both. “A gun? _My_ gun?!” he said angrily, and it were a wonder the entire ship didn’t hear his yelling as the two little girls stood before him, lips trembling and eyes fast filling with tears.

“It’s pretty,” was Jessy’s only argument.

“Ain’t loaded, never,” Lyssa added solemnly.

Danny couldn’t find words enough to express his frustration and so turned away and stormed from the room, even more angry now than a few minutes ago. For the sake of his own flesh that did not deserve more bruises he controlled himself enough so as not to lash out at any more walls, just slammed down into his room, the very place his father had ordered him to minutes before. Locking the door tight shut behind him, he continued to rave about the injustice of his life where no-one else ought to be able to hear.

Back in the galley, Shepherd Book had just caught the tail end of the ruckus, missing seeing anything but the back end of Danny disappearing as he entered and found two tearful children stood alone.

“What on Earth has been happening here?” he asked the girls, both fighting the urge to sob all over the place apparently.

He got no real answer and was only too glad when Simon hurried in to what had been happening too. Between them they ought to be able to get some answer out of the kids as to what had occurred, between the crying Jessy and Lyssa had now started doing full force.

* * *

“Jayne!” yelled Mal too close to the merc for comfort. “You listenin’ to a damn word I’m tellin’ ya?” he checked.

“Sure, Cap’n,” he lied, having not heard a thing since he first got up there on the bridge.

He hated fighting with his boy, hated it as much as did seeing River or Jessy cry. Tore at his insides to see any part of his little family upset, but he just couldn’t see his way to lettin’ Danny come out on a mission with him and the crew, no way, no how. Wasn’t the place for a kid, middle of a fire fight and such. There was a chance the boy’d get hurt or worse killed, and it was Jayne’s job as a father to make sure that didn’t happen. Of course, this was a simplistic way of viewing things, but Jayne was a simple man in a lot of ways.

“So, once Kaylee gets the stabilisers proper fixed up, we’ll be all set for a landin’,” explained Mal, from the beginning since he was damned sure Jayne was lying to him about listenin’ before. “Zoe’ll come with me, meet the guy, make the deal. Jayne you’ll be look out case things don’t run so smooth, always in contact with Wash here. Wanna make a hasty exit either way when we get done here, ain’t my favourite place to be.”

The relative silence that followed but a moment was soon shattered by yelling and screaming, footsteps both light and heavy along the catwalks and down the corridors, giving him that special kind of headache he was fast getting used to but still not lovin’ even a little bit.

“Right, that’s it! Go Hwong-tong!” he boomed, slamming his hand on the console and making Wash wince before he stormed out of the door and down the hallway.

Lyssa almost tripped him up as she came bolting through in tears, headed straight for her kin, and Jessy was just now reaching the bottom of the steps into the cargo bay as Mal hit the catwalk above. Below him, Jessy ran to River who had been playing down there with the Tam kids, also clearly upset as Simon and Book suddenly appeared from either direction, looking concerned.

“What in the gorram hell?!” the Captain exploded at all concerned, as those from the bridge heard the hollerin’ and came on through to see what the fuss was really all about.

They’d had half a story from Alyssa, between sobs and fits, but not a bit of it was making no sense.

“I heard yellin’ right back in the engine room,” said Kaylee as she appeared behind her husband, wiping grease from her hands with a rag. “What’s...?”

“Ssh,” Simon hushed her swiftly, mindful of Mal’s increasing temper as his face went puce and he slammed his hands against the railings.

“Right, we all here, we all better be set to listen!” he boomed. “This here is my ship, and not a damn playground. I never planned on startin’ no kindergarten and it ain’t happenin’ now, so kids, you learn to behave or so help me...” He shook his head, unable to think of a reasonable threat as so many pairs of sad and apologetic eyes stared up at him from below and across from either side. “I need some peace and order is all. Gotta try to keep things runnin’ smooth, dong ma?” he urged his crew, a little less worked up than he had been a moment ago. “Can’t keep y’all safe if I got you runnin’ around like crazy people, screamin’ like you’re bein’ eaten alive.”

“I’ll second that.” Zoe nodded. “My little Warrior here knows better, right, honey?” she asked the little girl who stood beside her, hand clutched in her father’s own.

“Yes, Ma.” Alyssa nodded dutifully.

“And the rest of you?” he called down below. “You understand Uncle Mal needs his sanity?”

“Yes, sir,” the twins chorused, a they were prone to doing.

“Uh-huh,” agreed Jessy from her place sat on River’s knee, just about done snivelling now.

“That’s good,” said Mal then, looking around at his assembled crew. “’Cause I don’t like bein’ the bad guy, just part of bein’ Captain sometimes,” he reminded them, before walking away.

Malcolm Reynolds wasn’t used to feeling bad about anything much, but he didn’t much care for yellin’ at his crew as a rule, ‘specially not the kids who never meant no harm. Sometimes it wasn’t easy, keepin’ everything together in times of crisis and such. Not that they was havin’ a crisis as such, but work here on Persephone had a tendency to go south all too often...

“You look like you have the weight of the world upon your shoulders, Mal,” said her voice then, a hand creeping onto his shoulder from behind.

“You feel free to help me lift it off.” He smiled in spite of himself as he turned to Inara, his hands going to her waist as her arms slipped easily around his neck like the most natural thing in the world. “Can’t tell you how glad I am to have you back.”

“Oh please, do try,” she teased him as he moved to kiss her long and hard.

It was the strangest feeling for Inara. She kissed a great many men, she lie with them, performed all manner of services. They did things for her too and brought her a great deal of pleasure in various ways, but nobody in the whole of her life could make her feel quite like Malcolm Reynolds did with just a kiss.

She suspected that love made all the difference, for love was most certainly what they shared, there was no other way to explain how two people, so different in so many ways, could have been together all this time and retained such a relationship through all the twists and turns life had thrown their way. Of course, just when things started to feel calm again, one more curveball came sailing towards them.

“Well, that’s some talent you got there, darlin’.” Mal sighed as he and Inara parted lips but nothing else, their arms tight around each other still. “Almost forgot how mad I was five minutes ago.”

“Should I even ask what made you so angry?” she ventured, mindful of bringing on another bout of fury, but also hoping to help if she could.

“Ah, ‘s nothin’, just the kids makin’ noise and all.” He waved away her concern, alongside the temper he knew he should have kept better control of before. “Just when I’m concentrating on a job, I gotta focus. Can’t have all these distractions. Damn sure I never asked to play kindergarten teacher! Reckon it was simpler herding cattle.”

“You know they mean no harm with their games.” She smiled. “They love and respect their Uncle Mal”

“Maybe so, bao bei.” He nodded. “But makes me mighty glad at times they ain’t callin’ me Daddy. Not sure I could be handlin’ a whole bunch of little ones twenty-four-seven, no let up, no matter how good a Uncle I make,” he smiled, planting one last kiss on her cheek before turning to walk away. “I got work to do now, but I’ll see ya later, after the exciting crime.”

“Yes, we’ll talk,” she said softly, forcing a smile until she was sure his back was to her and he was far enough away he wouldn’t turn back again.

It was true, they had a great deal they should talk about, but Inara didn’t relish the idea of such a conversation. Mal always seemed to love the children, but more than once had made it clear he was glad they were not his own. Today of all days, she could have used a change of opinion from the man who meant so much to her. Now, how could she possibly tell him that there was every chance she was carrying his baby?


	2. Chapter 2

It seemed though the crew had worked together for their latest job and pulled it off without a hitch, the Captain’s blow up earlier at the rest of the crew was still to be discussed. Whilst Mal was off ‘catching up’ with Inara, and the kids were all tucked in their beds, the seven other adult members of the Serenity crew were in the galley, hammering out the issue,

“You gotta understand, weren’t the Cap’n’s idea to have kids on his boat,” said Zoe, a while after sitting and listening to the rest of her crew complain about Mal’s attitude lately. “We all made that decision for him.”

“It ain’t like he shouldn’t be used to it,” said Kaylee from across the table. “The twins are youngest here and they turned five last month.”

“I don’t think it’s necessarily how long the children have been onboard, Kaylee,” her husband told her, putting a hand over hers on the table as she looked distressed by the whole situation. “More that they’re all growing up and Mal feels Serenity is getting crowded perhaps.”

“Ya ask me, the man needs to get spliced his ownself, have ‘Nara pop out a couple of their own young ‘uns,” suggested Jayne from the kitchen where he and River stood, her finishing off a late snack for the crew. “Could be he’s just jealous we all got happy families and he don’t.”

“Not so happy today,” his wife reminded him of Danny’s yelling and Jessy’s tears with just a look. “Happiness is fleeting.” She sighed as she put two plates in Jayne’s hands for him to pass out.

“Come now, River,” the Preacher urged her from his place at the table. “You know we have so many reasons to be happy here, so many unions and arrivals.” He smiled. “I didn’t know it when I first boarded this boat, but I found a family the like of which I never had my whole life,” he told the crew, making every person at the table smile.

“I think I’m actually tearing up,” joked Wash and Zoe duly smacked him across the arm for his trouble, still trying not to chuckle at his antics.

“Well, I think it’s real sweet,” said Kaylee definitely. “See, I remember that day you came aboard, Shepherd. Told me ya never got wed or had kids or nothin’, now you got a share in a whole brood of young ‘un’s.” She smiled.

“Found a family,” River agreed as she came to join the rest at the table. “Found a new home, when the old one got lost.”

She looked at Simon then who nodded that he believed in what she said too. Their parents, their home planet, all they’d given up in their own ways, it was all worth it. Here was a new place to call their own, with people who meant as much if not more than any others that had been in the Tam siblings lives.

Eating soon replaced talking for the most part, and the conversation that was to be had centred on more usual and happier topics now; the kids, the food being eaten, and the latest exciting crime that had taken place just today. That had at least gone well, and Mal seemed pleased enough that his plan had run smooth for once. The goods had been picked up and hidden away in the cargo bay, with the promise of a fair amount of coin when Serenity reached Callisto in two days time. Tonight they stayed put on the far side of this peaceful little planet, knowing as they did that a hasty exit would only bring about suspicion by the townsfolk not privy to the mission of the Firefly’s crew.

“’Bout time I was turning in.” Wash yawned after a while, his food long since eaten and his body ready for bed. “You coming, Lamby Toes?” he asked Zoe, who smiled as she stood and took his offered hand.

“Right behind you, husband,” she assured him as they said goodnight and left the room.

“We oughta go too,” said Kaylee to Simon. “You know Natty and Sephy will be up bright and early as ever, and I could use as much shut eye as I can get after that engine fix.” She sighed, having worked her proverbial socks off today to have the ship ready in time, especially given Mal’s already foul mood - little Kaylee was in no mood for making his temper worse.

“I suppose I should make a start on these dishes,” said Book when the two couples were gone, leaving him alone with River and Jayne.

“Mighty fine o’ you to offer, Preacher.” The merc nodded as he stood up, expecting his wife to do the same.

He looked strangely down at River when she didn’t move, frowning some as he spotted the almost blank expression she wore.

“You alright, bao-bei?” he checked, sinking back into his seat and jostling her shoulder when she didn’t move or speak at all. “River?” he said worriedly, honestly afraid she was having some kind of seizure.

She only got so quiet and still right before all hell broke lose. Whilst Jayne was used to calming her in times of crisis, when her mind played tricks and she lost control awhile, this wasn’t quite the same. It was as if she was so focused on somethin’ she’d overloaded her own mind. With Jayne and Book both calling her name she eventually seemed to snap out of it, her head snapping up, eyes flitting to her husband, the Preacher, and back again before she was suddenly on her feet.

“She feels it,” she said, pain evident on her face as her hand covered her heart. “She feels the same and cries, my little girl,” she said, shaking her head sadly and hurrying from the room.

“Jessamine,” said Jayne in understanding as he went after her, panicking as he wondered what might have happened to his baby.

He arrived at his daughter’s room a moment after his wife, and found the little girl crying and sobbing in her mother’s lap. Her tears broke his heart, as River’s always did too, and Jayne would give everything he had to never have to see this kind of suffering ever again in his life.

“She cannot explain,” said River then as her husband moved to sit beside her on their daughters bed, putting a hand to the back of the little girl’s head and stroking her dark curls. “She feels but she does not know why.”

“Ain’t no reason for tears, baby,” Jessy’s father assured her, and though his words and her mother’s arms around her brought comfort, the little girl just couldn’t help but cry.

“Feel bad,” she tried to explained through her sobs. “Don’t know why, just do,” she sniffed, trying to stop her tears but finding it didn’t come easy.

“Emotions run high aboard ship,” her mother told her, kissing her forehead. “Too much for a Reader to bear sometimes,” she explained, looking to Jayne who nodded his understanding.

“Damn gift ain’t nothin’ but a gorram pain in the ass sometimes,” he growled, unhappy at the sight of his tearful girls still. “At least I ain’t got Danny crying all over me too.”

“Still feels,” said River not missing a beat. “Still hurts,” she told Jayne, though he honestly wasn’t sure whether she meant that Daniel felt pain in general or if he was feelin’ it right now.

Sure, they’d had kind of an argument and Jayne hadn’t seen the boy since, but sulking was what teenagers did, of that he was certain. The kid would cool off, see his Pa was right in what he said, and everything would be right with the ‘verse, least that was the simplistic way that the mercenary saw it.

“Let him sleep on this whole thing.” He shook his head. “Be fine by mornin’, almost guarantee it.”

River nodded her agreement though she thought twice before doing so. Danny was headstrong and stubborn as both Jayne and herself could be. Right now he was hurting, she was sure of it, though he was deliberately shielding his mind from her, she knew that too. That she could deal with, she understood he needed his privacy and to be allowed to keep his thoughts to himself, so she didn’t push, just sent calming energy his way, hoping it would do him good, as it was doing Jessamine.

“Long day.” She sighed as she smiled down at her baby girl, now asleep in her arms.

Jayne moved out of the way, as River laid Jessy down in the bed and covered her over, glad when the child stayed sleeping and did not stir anymore. A yawn escaped River’s own lips then and she leaned her weight on her husband.

“Time we got some rest too,” he said, putting an arm around her and leading her to their own bunk. “Like you said, ‘s been a long day.”

“Not over yet for all,” she said softly, and Jayne didn’t need to ask what she meant as he saw her eyes flit to the door of Inara’s shuttle.

Inside the Companion’s quarters, two lovers collapsed against the pillows in each others arms, bodies still humming from the experience of making love together.

“I love you,” whispered Mal in the half-light, keeping Inara’s body close to his as he pulled the covers up around them both.

“And I love you,” she echoed, kissing his face. “You know I never tire of hearing those words from you,” she breathed, laying her head against his shoulder with a contented sigh.

Of all the men she had lay with, and so many more she would be of service to yet, Inara had never felt this way about any other. Malcolm Reynolds was somewhat of a miracle to her. Every single element of mankind that drove her to distraction and at the same time everything that drew her in, further and further, until she was so deeply in love there was no way out.

“Never do tire of sayin’ it, or hearin’ it my ownself,” he told her, running his fingers through her hair and over her skin, wondering at all she was and all she made him feel.

If’n a person would’ve told him a few years back that his life would be this, Mal would have laughed in their faces. He had a beautiful, sweet, elegant, amazing woman here beside him, telling him he was all she wanted and proving it over and over in so many ways. He felt the same about her, a love far deeper than he ever knew he was capable o’ feeling for anyone in the ‘verse. It would be gorram frightening, if’n Mal was the type to admit to fear, but in the best of ways, whether that made sense or not.

“So much for coming here to talk tonight,” Inara tried to stifle a less than lady-like yawn then. “It is a little late for that now, I suppose,” she said, noting the late hour and how exhausted she felt after the events of the day.

The fact Mal’s eyes were falling shut even as she spoke told her he was having similar trouble holding on to reality, his body and brain both overworked. It relieved her to not have to tell him her secret tonight, and yet at the same time Inara knew putting it off would only make the whole situation that much more complicated.

“Woman, did I not tell you all about the latest exciting crime and then take you, body and soul, to places your senses ain’t hardly ever been?” he admonished her playfully. “That ain’t enough talk and action both for you?”

“I am a woman of such tastes, Mal,” she told him, unsure even herself if her serious tone were real or faked. “You know I might never be completely satisfied.”

“Not how it sounded nor felt to me a minute or so back,” he told her with a look that would make a lesser person blush profusely, Inara was certain.

“Mal!” she complained, swatting his chest and making him complain, though he was soon laughing again and she couldn’t help but join in.

The joke was a welcome distraction, but didn’t keep Inara’s serious thoughts at bay for very long. Sleep was not going to come until she made some mention of that which she would hide, the truth she had learnt during the trip she’d passed off as business. Though she had clients aplenty she could have seen whilst she was away, Inara had not done so. The only man to venture beneath her clothing had been a doctor, and the only person inside her was an unborn child, hers and Mal’s own.

“Does this life tire you?” she said then, hiding her face in his chest as she continued. “Do you ever crave something else?” she wondered aloud, hardly able to breathe as she awaited his answer.

“I guess, sometimes.” Mal sighed as he thought it over. “Could try wishin’ for an’ easy life, but I ain’t so sure there is a such a thing to be had for folks like me,” he said with no particular hint of sadness or regret in his voice, as he held Inara close, his hand stroking the ends of her hair and her shoulder still. “‘Sides, life dealt me a pretty good hand, reckon I played it best I could.” He smiled. “Got me a crew and family both out the same folk. Got the most beautiful, most smartest, damnedest woman I know sayin’ she loves me an’ all,” he told her, kissing the top of her head. “An’ I got me the skill and such I need to make a decent near-honest livin’ too. Can’t see me ever wantin’ nor needin’ no more outta life,” he said, stifling a yawn as he shifted down under the covers. “‘Cept maybe a few more hours sleep than I’m gettin’,” he half-joked, as his eyes fell shut and he drifted off.

Of course, sleep would not come to easily to the woman laid across his chest. Inara knew now more than ever that Mal would never want a baby. He would see it as a further complication to a life that already had quite enough ups and downs. He was content with his lot and expected her to be the same, which Inara herself had believed she was until now. It had not entirely occurred to her that she should want to be a mother until the moment came. Now, she was not certain what was to be done for best.

There was a slim chance that Mal loved her enough to accept the child she carried if he could believe it was his own, but even Inara could not let herself be so certain. Her occupation being what it was, there were so many men that had shared her bed, and though she took ample precautions with each and every one, accidents did happen. For herself and Mal, they were careful too, but she recalled the occasion that must have resulted in her pregnancy. She could try to explain it to him, but she felt there was little chance he’d understand, and an even smaller one that he would want the child even if he did believe it was his own son or daughter she carried.

A light snore from the man besides her told Inara that Mal now slept. Still, she knew she would be unable to join him in peaceful slumber. Not tonight, nor any night, if she didn’t figure this out soon.


	3. Chapter 3

Wash loved when things ran smooth. It didn’t happen a whole lot onboard Serenity, and he learnt to live with that. He made his peace with the fact of it on the day he first signed up to be the pilot of the little Firefly, abandoning the dream of flying a luxury liner or some such. That was a dream he had long since outgrown, in fact he let go of it quite happily the moment he met the Captains first mate, Zoe.

Love at first sight, it was a corny line that even his darling wife couldn’t fully understand but Wash built a new dream around that woman and it had more than come true. It was times like this, sat alone on the bridge, coasting through the black, that he had time to reflect and smile at the happiness that was life.

No, he didn’t get a lot of smooth running, none of them did, but it was worth the rough times to be here with a wife he adored, a child that he loved more than the ‘verse itself, and a family of friends he’d never want to be without. Calm, happy, serene, ironically, but it never lasted, and Wash often ended these happy peaceful moments of quiet reflection with panic and mayhem as the latest disaster hit the happy band upon their Firefly ship. Today would be no different.

A beeping sound from the console caught his attention, and Wash dropped his foot down from its resting place on his opposite knee to sit straight and pay attention to what was going on.

“Inara?” he said to himself as he realised the alarm was letting him know her shuttle was detaching.

She wasn’t scheduled to leave. Nobody told him, and either she or the Captain usually would. It made him worry and quickly Wash hit the comm.

“Inara?” he called to her. “Everything okay in there? I got a beeping that’s telling me you’re on the move. Anything I should worry about?” he checked.

No answer came and Wash frowned as he double checked the console, wondering if perhaps the flashing light and beeping sound was a fault, that perhaps Inara wasn’t gong anywhere at all. Of course it could also mean one of the kids was about to fly solo or some kind of evil-doer had managed to get into the shuttle from the outside - it wouldn’t be the first time, after all!

“Kaylee!” he tried calling through to the engine room next. “Do we got a gremlin gummin’ up the works, or is someone taking off in Inara’s shuttle?” he checked.

“I got no faults here, Wash,” her voice came back fuzzy through the comm. “Maybe she has a Client to go see,” she suggested. “Though she didn’t say nothin’ about it...”

“Affirmative, Kaylee, I’ll try to get a hold of the, Cap’n,” Wash told her, switching channels and doing just that. “Captain, we may have a problem,” he said over the comm that broadcast everywhere. “Nothin’ to panic on folks but maybe the Captain would like to come to the bridge... round about now would be good,” he said, trying to keep the worry out of his tone for fear of causing a panic.

Something wasn’t right here, he could just feel it. Something inside just screamed that things were going south, which was a feeling Wash ought to be used to after all this time.

“Mi Tian Gohn,” he swore colourfully just as Mal appeared in the doorway, covering one ear against the high-pitched din that emanated from the console.

“Wash, what in the gorram hell is going on in here? Sounds like a bunch of crickets havin’ a shindig on my bridge!” he complained.

“Oh, we’re havin’ a great time, Mal,” chuckled Wash, though no humour was present in his tone as he flipped switches and had a mini-panic. “I got two shuttles trying to detach, gettin’ no answer from Inara and just about to try the other.”

“Give me that!” he commanded, Captainy as ever was Mal as he grabbed the comm from his pilot and spoke loud and clear. “This is Captain Reynolds speaking. Whom-so-ever is stealing my shuttles, I wanna know about it right now!” he boomed, all in authority, though it did no good.

Indeed, there were no thieves aboard Serenity, nobody who wasn’t part of the crew at least. Inara wished she could switch off the comms that boomed with her lovers voice as she set about flying away from here, but the ship was built as such that no matter what buttons were pushed inside her shuttle the controls at Serenity’s bridge could and would override.

A pillow stuffed up by the main speaker muffled the sound of Mal asking what in the gorram hell was going on, and Inara fought tears and the urge to say anything but a whispered apology to him as she forced the shuttle free of its rightful place in Serenity’s side and flew off into the black.

Inara was unaware that the second shuttle was about to detach and fly in the opposite direction just as fast. At its controls, a boy who had learnt long ago how to fly, a natural talent that had been nurtured by Wash and his parents both. Daniel Cobb was a fine pilot and today he would prove his smarts, though no-one would know it was him 'til he was long gone.

“Wash, you stay here, try to make contact with either shuttle,” Mal told him after too long of yelling and cursing through various comm channels and checking all manner of controls. “Seems I got a roll call to get through,” he muttered then, storming off the bridge and almost knocking Kaylee and Simon flying as they came hurrying to see what the problem was.

“Is everythin’ okay, Cap’n?” the mechanic asked worriedly.

“Depends. Where are ya young ‘uns?” he asked them quickly.

“They’re fine,” Simon explained. “I left Persephone and Nathanial with River...” he continued on, only to be cut off by an almost blood-curdling scream from his sister.

“Wuh de ma!” yelled Mal as he tore off down the corridor with the couple in quick pursuit, the only person travelling the other way was Zoe scarmbling to the bridge to check on her husband.

The others all ran down the stairs from the catwalk, in tandem with Jayne who doubtless had heard the yellin’ just the same. All four of the crew landed in the cargo bay at the same second to find the kids gathered around River. Poor woman was laid out on the floor, screaming still as if her world were ending, clutching at her head as if a war had broke out ‘tween her ears.

“River!” it was as if Jayne were a man possessed as he leapt into action, his yelling splitting the kids just as fast as Moses parted the Red Sea, and he was on his knees, gathering his wife up into his arms in a moment. “Bao-bei, talk to me!” he urged her.

It had been a good long while since she’d flipped out in quite this fashion, and even Simon who most understood the science of all his sister had been put through was shocked to see such a reaction from her after all this time.

She would never be normal, not in the real sense of the word, not after all she had suffered and endured, but for years now her periods of calmness and sanity had been lengthening. This kind of fit, for want of a better term, had not been experienced in such a long time.

River wailed and writhed in her husbands arms, refusing to be calm in seemed, though he doubted she could help it. Jayne held her body close, his hands firm on her arms, ensuring she would not do herself harm as she lashed around as if in a nightmare.

“Get these kids outta here,” he urged Kaylee who did just that, encouraging Simon to go with her.

He wasn’t keen, but the doctor did know that if anyone could help River be calm it would be Jayne. She clearly suffered no injury, her suffering was contained within her mind and she would not be calm when surrounded by so many faces that would doubtless be unfamiliar within her state of confusion.

“Listen to me, River, ain’t nothin’ to be afraid of, I’m here,” said Jayne, the same words over and over until her screamin’ broke down some, became just tears and anguish written on her features. “C’mon, bao-bei, ain’t nothin’ to fear,” he promised her, rocking her body with his as he held her tight, bringing any comfort he could to his beloved wife who had suffered far too much in her young life.

Mal was pleased to have the banshee-type wailin’ over with, but he still wanted to know why it had all begun, what River mighta seen in her head as the crisis broke out. If anyone was to know what was happenin’ here, it would be his Reader, though right now she looked in no fit state to explain. At the very least, Mal had the assurance none of the little ones had been playin’ in the shuttles and got into trouble, they’d all been here 'til a moment ago.

“Baby flew away,” said River then, her words obscured by emotion and muffled against Jayne’s shoulder as he held her tight still. “Grew wings when our backs were turned, beaks like needles in his heart, and mice would steal his home, no home, home is where the heart is 'til it forgot how to beat when broken!”

“You follow any o’ that?” Mal asked Jayne hopefully, knowing if anyone could unscramble such a code it might just be the man who knew River best and loved her most.

“Lao-tyen, boo!” the mercenary cursed. “Where’s Danny?” he asked Mal who shook his head in the negative and moved towards the comm.

“Daniel Cobb, you hear this message you damn well answer me!” he yelled through the system. “I swear you on this ship Danny and you ain’t answerin’ me...”

“Can’t.” River shook her head sadly. “Lost forever to the black. Blacker than the darkest hour. She was not his guide or safety, the swan flies alone, solo,” she fought to explain through a scramble of mixed thoughts and emotions, struggling as she sometimes did to gain a grip on reality and memories that filled her head still but did not belong to her.

When calm, she could usually distinguish the two, remind herself that she was safe here with family and friends, love and warmth. She could not forget, but she could keep up a few barriers if she tried, block a little of what she feared, the things that did not belong. In a fit of panic as she had been just now, too many strong emotions flowing in from those she loved dear, it too easily overpowered the poor woman and it had taken a combination of quiet and her husband’s arms around her to make her calm again. Still, she knew she must try to make more sense, for the Captain’s sake if nothing else.

“They are gone,” she said clearly. “Both flown away, all full of dark.”

“Danny’s gone?” checked Jayne, such a look on his face as River had not seen in years, a terrible mixture of pain and anger and fear that she so hated to see.

“Rejection, pain... he feels too much,” she explained as best she could. “Ran away.”

“And Inara?” Mal cut in without a thought. “She gone too?”

“Secrets and lies.” River nodded in response, sniffing hard and wiping her face with the back of her hand, still able to look surprisingly childlike despite the fact she was all woman these days. “Couldn’t stay, couldn’t risk the loss”

Mal didn’t understand, couldn’t take in what he was being told. Sure, River didn’t exactly make a boatload of sense for the most part anyhow, but he’d learnt to unravel her simpler riddles. From what she as sayin’ it would seem as if Inara had bolted for fear of what might happen if she stayed. Fear of things going wrong maybe, but Mal couldn’t figure how she’d gotten so worked up about it. They’d got along well enough these past few years. He’d learned to deal with the nature of her work as she’d made her peace with his. Last night she’d slept in his arms like so many times before, promises of love passing between them, no mention of anythin’ bein’ wrong that Mal could recall.

“Er, Captain?” a voice called from the catwalk above, and three pair of eyes looked up to see the Shepherd leant on the railing. “I believe our runaways meant to explain their reasons for fleeing,” he explained, showing he had at least two pieces of paper in his hands.

Mal came bolting up the steps, with Jayne not far behind, his hand holding on tightly to River’s own as the worried parents ascended the stairs just as fast as the Captain. Book sadly looked between the three and held out the papers he had found.

“This was in the galley,” he told Mal as he handed him a fine envelope that stated his name in flowing hand, “and this was tacked to the door of your bunk,” he said to River and Jayne as he passed her a folded piece of paper that simply read ‘Ma & Pa’.

And so River’s words were proven to be true: Daniel and Inara were both gone.


	4. Chapter 4

Mal sat in his bunk, staring hard at the piece of paper in his hand. Never had one short piece of writing confounded him so much as this, or made him feel so many mixed up things. He hated that Inara was gone, hated it more that she’d barely given him an explanation. It hurt that she would leave and it twisted the knife a little further in his gut knowing she would do so without even being able to face him. Made Mal wonder what sort of monster she must think he was, to be too afeared to stand face to face with him and explain why the need to run away. Course the sensible side of Mal’s brain told him he was bein’ a real gorram fool. Could be she bolted without a word ‘cause she knew he’d convince her to stay. That was a little more flatterin’ way to look at things but right now Mal’s head was too scrambled to think real straight on any of this stuff.

All the Captain of Serenity knew for sure was that he had two members of his crew playin’ at being runaways and as far as he was concerned neither had all that good a reason for doin’ so. Last night everything had been just shiny, well, kinda anyway. Sure there had been some upset ‘tween Mal himself and the kids, but that had all been fixed up, no problems at all.

As far as ‘Nara was concerned, they’d talked, they’d made love, and then fallen asleep in each others arms. When he’d walked out of her shuttle this morning, he had no notion that she was plannin’ on leaving him like this. He wondered if she had it planned all along, but he couldn’t believe it. Inara weren’t the cold and calculating kind. Breaking his heart, as she had to know she was doing, would have to be an unhappy side-effect in her eyes, a bad thing that had to happen as a consequence of the necessary. Mal realised he was likening himself to a causality of war, describing things this way, and he didn’t like that neither.

Getting up off the edge of the bed, he paced the room, knowing he had to make some kind of decision on what was to be done next. T’weren’t just Inara out there alone in the black, it was Danny too. Not that it seemed they’d gone anywhere together, though Mal wasn’t so sure whether that was a better or worse thing.

Holding up the piece of paper in his hand, Mal tried re-reading Inara’s letter one more time in the hopes he could make real sense of what had happened.

_‘Dearest Mal,  
I hardly know where to begin, there is so much I have to say and yet I have no idea how I shall ever do so.  
First of all, please do not worry about me. I have left of my own free will, so have no fears about kidnapping or anything.  
Secondly, I pray you do not believe I have left you because I do not love you - that could not be further from the truth.  
Malcolm Reynolds, you are the first and only man I have ever loved this way, and this is part of the reason why I must leave.  
Things are changing, Mal, so much that I sometimes feel I can hardly breathe I am spinning around so fast. I doubt I’m making much sense to you now, I am writing this in such a rush and yet I have been thinking about it for days, how to say goodbye if and when the time comes.  
I know you will have a hundred questions, and you are the kind of man not to give up until you have answers. I’m sorry that I can’t help you with that, Mal. All I can do is ask that this once you go against your character and let me go.  
I wish I could explain more, perhaps one day I will.  
For now, please believe that even though I am no longer at your side, my heart is with you always.  
All my love,  
Your Inara_

By the end of the letter, Mal was again so frustrated he balled up the paper and threw it across the bunk. The good that action did was precisely none, but the Captain didn’t care. He had a decision to make now; do as Inara asked and let her go, or chase her down and demand answers from her. His head chose the first option, but whether his heart could bear it was a whole other question.

* * *

“You feelin’ any better, bao bei?” asked Jayne as he descended the ladder to the bunk he shared with his wife.

River was sat on the bed, leant back against the wall with Jessamine asleep across her lap. She stroked her daughters hair and stared unseeing at the opposite wall, or so it seemed to Jayne as he walked through her line of vision with a cup of sweet herbal tea in his hands that the Shepherd had whipped up for the crisis.

“River?” he tried again to get her attention, mindful of raising his voice with the little one sleeping and all, knowing Jessie hadn’t got much rest the night before.

Now he understood what was wrong with his daughter, why she’d been so upset but didn’t know why. The kids were like River with their Reader abilities, but they’d also learned how to keep their thoughts to themselves too. Danny didn’t want anyone to know he was goin’ on the run, closed off his mind to his Ma and sister both, so they knew somethin’ was wrong but didn’t know what.

“You’re angry,” said River then, still in her daze at first, but shifting her eyes to her husband a moment later as he sat down beside her. “At him, at yourself,” she added, no expression on her face or particular tone to her voice as she spoke.

Jayne knew she was right, no use in denyin’ it. They both knew his fight with Danny had started this and that now he blamed himself even more than he blamed the boy for runnin’ out without a word.

“Ain’t exactly gonna be happy, is I?” he said, almost a little angry at her too for reminding him he’d done wrong, at least he felt like he had and it seemed his son did too.

The note he’d left behind, the self same one that River held in her hand now, said it all, as she proved by reading aloud one more time.

_‘Ma and Pa  
Please don’t be mad at me, but I had to do this, had to get off this boat ‘cause it’s driving me crazy.  
I can’t be one of the kids, too big for that, I know it, but Pa and the Captain both won’t let me be a man neither.  
It’s time for me to grow up, I know it even if nobody else sees, and I’m going to prove to you that I can survive on my own, be a man just like my Pa.  
Maybe sometime I’ll come back. Tell Uncle Mal I’ll take care of his shuttle, and tell Jessie and the little ones not to worry on me, I know what I’m doing.  
Love, Danny’_

“River, don’t read that no more,” said Jayne, shaking his head. “Don’t wanna hear it.”

“Have to hear it,” she insisted, refusing the tea he tried to hand her. “Have to understand, feel pain he feels. I have to,” she snapped, as tears filled her eyes that her husband could not bear to see.

“Hey, don’t be like that, woman,” he urged her, putting the tea cup down on the table and then turning to reach for her, but she blocked his arm.

“No,” she insisted. “Can’t. Too much.” She shook her head. “Too much pain.”

Jayne knew what she meant, knew because he was hurting just as much as she was. ‘Tween the anger at Danny and his ownself, fear and sadness over the boys goin’ and guilt that he may be at least part of the cause of it, it was all too much for him too. Course womenfolk were allowed to cry and be mad and all. He was a man, didn’t do for him to feel nothin’, ‘cept she’d taught him different. It was River, his darlin’ wife, that made him care, first for Danny then for her. Now they was a family and they meant the world to him, but his son was gone, his wife not willing to let him close, his daughter tired out from the stress of it all.

Jayne left the bunk with a cloud as dark as the black over his head, and he couldn’t see it shiftin’ any time soon, that was for gorram sure.

* * *

“Hey, Cap’n,” greeted Wash in a less than chirpy tone, as Mal came onto the bridge, the pilot ever mindful of upsetting the guy any further than he already was.

He and Zoe had been having a good long talk about the nature of Mal and Inara’s relationship and agreed that neither of them ever expected her to leave in quite such a way. She was a good woman and she’d done a world of good for the Captain, usually making him a happier guy and better to deal with.

Sure, they had their moments, their stupid fights, their temper tantrums, both of them were guilty of that, but no relationship ran smooth all the time. That didn’t change the fact that Wash and Zoe both had believed that Mal and Inara had a relationship capable of withstanding anything, and lasting as long as any marriage could, in spite of the fact they were never officially wed.

“Wash, I want a full scan of the area, a list of every possible place them shuttles could make it to unaided,” snapped Mal as he came to sit in the co-pilots chair, looking out at the black with an unreadable expression.

He had an idea Wash would ask him about it and as much as he’d say that the last thing he wanted to do was talk on the subject, it would almost be nice to get another perspective here, just so long as it weren’t too far from his own idea of how to go on.

It had taken an hour of pacing and re-reading of Inara’s note before he knew what he had to do, and do it he would whether it was agreed with or not by his crew or the woman in question. He was Captain after all, and this weren’t no democracy. His word was law aboard Serenity, and he would not be argued with.

“So, we are gonna track down Inara and Danny both, I’m guessin’?” asked Wash, keeping his tone even, his eyes on the consoles, as his hands move deftly over the controls and switches all around him.

“Both ran away in somethin’ that belongs to me,” replied Mal gruffly as he stared out of the plexiglass still. “Both gotta bring it back and tell me just what in the hell they was thinkin’,” he explained, and though Wash was not so dumb as to believe Mal didn’t also want back the persons who were gone, most especially Inara, he kept away from that particular train of thought when he spoke next.

“I think Jayne calmed down River, but havin’ their kid bolt like that.” He shook his head. “Can’t imagine how I’d feel losin’ my little girl... or my wife,” he added more quietly, mindful of causing an upset.

Mal remained quiet a long moment then got up from the chair again and turned to walk away. Wash barely heard him speak as he strode off the bridge, and wondered if he was ever supposed to.

“Tears your heart out.”


	5. Chapter 5

Inara held back tears the entire time she was flying away from Serenity. A voice in the back of her head was constant and loud, telling her to go back, to talk to Mal, to figure this out. She couldn’t allow herself to listen. He wasn’t ever going to understand and accept what she had to tell him, and so she had told him nothing at all. It was selfish and wrong perhaps, but it wasn’t as if the rest of the crew were never guilty of such things. Inara had her reasons and she believed them to be good ones. One broken heart, even two now, was better than three or even more later on.

Landing her shuttle expertly on the ground, Inara knew she could not make this her place for long, it was simply a stopping point, a chance to recharge her transport and rest before moving on again. Running was a fool’s choice of a life, but one she’d made a very long time ago. She had never planned to continue on alone like this, especially not with a baby on the way. She must find somewhere to settle, and she had a plan or two that still might work out, she told herself, as she released the locks on the shuttle and set about climbing out.

Walking across the dusty ground, glad of the veil that saved her eyes from the swirling sand, Inara found new tears as she greeted her old friend.

“Nandi, my dear,” she said, reaching out to run elegant fingers along the words marked on the headstone before her. “It has been far too long since I last came,” she said, ashamed of herself for staying away.

Life had taken such turns these past years, moved in ways Inara Serra had never imagined possible. Years ago when she was here, her dear friend had lost her life, the morning after lying with Mal. Inara never blamed Nandi for her actions, she didn’t really blame her lover either, for he was not to know then how she really felt about him. Sat at the graveside, Inara cried softly, her tears running out on her after a short while. She had already cried too much and it was to stop now. She must be strong, not only for her ownself but for her unborn child too. God knows, life wasn’t going to get any easier for her from here on out, only harder still.

“Inara?” a shadow fell over her as her name was spoken in familiar tones. “Land sakes, what you doin’ here?” asked Petaline as she reached to hug a woman she had a great respect for.

“Oh, you know I have been trying to find a suitable time to come and visit for so long,” the older woman told her as they embraced each other. “Now, I am ashamed to say, fate has chosen that time for me,” she explained vaguely, as Petaline looked at her properly and realised she was far from happy or well.

“You come inside, ‘Nara,” she urged her, an arm still around her friend as they headed towards the house.

Something weren’t right here, that much the woman running the Heart of Gold was pretty gorram sure of. More’n once in the past Inara and her crew had been there to save her and the girls, not least that first time when they came to protect Petaline herself and her child, Jonah. Whatever Inara needed, she’d see to it she got that help, come what may.

* * *

The shuttle landed smoothly on the surface of the moon, carefully hidden by trees and bushes as was Daniel Cobb’s intention. At home on Serenity, he was hardly ever treated like a real man, and yet he had experience and knowledge enough to get by on his own. That was the point of this trip, this adventure into the ‘verse. His Pa and the Captain and all, they needed to know he was not some dumb kid that had to be protected or nothin’. At seventeen he was easily big enough to go out on jobs; he knew damn well they’d let his Ma go along on many a mission at just his age and yet he was kept back and out of harms way. Not that he minded he was being protected so much, but the older he got the more useless he felt and not nobody seemed to understand that!

Thinking about it made Danny frustrated even now and he kicked out at a crate as he walked throughout he shuttle. He knew immediately he shouldn’ta done it as his toes throbbed and the contents of the one box of belongings he’d brought along rattled like crazy.

Bending down to the box, he opened it up and checked nothing was damaged. A couple of packs of food, his only gun and a little ammo he’d thieved, sure nobody would mind, a few trinkets to remind him of the only home he ever knew and the family he almost wished he hadn’t run from even now. Still, he told himself he’d done the right thing. Gonna prove himself to be a man, go home some kind o’ hero or some such and then he’d get a little respect from the crew that still saw him as a little boy most of the time.

Loading the gun, he pushed it into the back of his belt, hidden by the coat he wore. He felt for the little cash he had in his pocket and pushed his raven hair back out his face before turning towards the door and striding out into the relative unknown. Hecate was a moon not entirely foreign to him. The crew had taken a couple of jobs off the place, being as it was not so very far from Persephone. Uncle Mal always told him and the others not to look upon that planet as a home just ‘cause they was there often enough, but it was hard not to prefer wanderin’ familiar territory often as a person could.

“Well,” said Danny to his ownself alone as he walked out of the shuttle and ensured the door was locked tight behind him. “Here goes nothin’.”

* * *

“Just don’t know what to make of it, is all,” said Kaylee in hushed tones as she and Simon sat on the edge of the bed together, watching the kids play jacks together on the floor. “Keep thinkin’ neither of ‘em can have been so happy if they ran away like that, but the Cap’n ain’t the kind to hurt Inara.” She shook her head. “And Jayne and River... they was an odd pair for a while but Danny always loved ‘em both. Can’t understand why he’d wanna leave like that, just can’t,” she said, close to tears.

Simon put an arm around her back, letting her head drop to his shoulder. His wife was the sensitive kind, always had been, from the very first day he met her to now. The crew of the Serenity were all family to each other but it was as if his Kaylee were the glue that kept said family together. She loved like no other person he ever met, so completely and without question. Simon knew he was so blessed to have found her and to still be with her years down the line.

He couldn’t imagine what his poor sister and her husband were going through, but he didn’t envy their situation one little bit. He had mentioned going to see River but couldn’t doubt that Kaylee was right in saying perhaps he should leave them for now, let them deal with this as a couple first. It didn’t stop him feeling concerned though.

“Teenage boys are a law unto themselves,” said Simon as he held Kaylee tight, planting a kiss on top of her head. “I should know, I did used to be one,” he reminded her.

“Can’t think you was ever anythin’ but as perfect a boy as ya are a man.” She smiled up at him, managing a semi-joke even in such a serious moment.

“Perfect?” he echoed, blushing even now despite the fact he ought to be used to her compliments after all this time. “Yes, perfectly able to run and hide every time a beautiful woman was present,” he reminded her of the awkwardness they’d had to go through for so long before finally getting together.

“All the same, couldn’t stand to be without you, not never,” she told him, unable to help but wonder on how she would cope if anyone she loved this much ran away from her.

It was bad enough that two members of the Serenity family were gone, she wasn’t sure she’d know how to go on at all without her Simon, or her kids.

“I can promise you, Kaylee,” her husband swore. “Until such time as I have no choice in the matter, I will be with you,” he promised as they shared a kiss, much to the amusement of the twins as they spotted the loving moment and giggled childishly.

The sweet and playful moment was interrupted all to soon, not by the sadness and woe that had been on Kaylee’s mind a moment before, but by a loud crashing and stomping of boots down the hall. The kids were startled by the sound and rushed to their mother as Simon moved towards the doorway. Immediately, he knew what was happening and made to investigate.

“Daddy!” his daughter looked worried when he wanted to leave but he turned back and smiled down at her.

“It’s alright, Persephone,” he assured her. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. Just your Uncle Jayne needing... a friend,” he said, giving Kaylee a look before heading out of their family quarters.

They were closest to the medical room, which made sense given he was the doctor and was often needed at short notice. Of course the person currently in his domain, yelling and crashing and cursing was not actually in need of medical attention, only perhaps someone or something to vent his frustrations on. The prospect of facing the man that was in essence his brother-in-law when in such a state did not thrill Simon in the least, but sometimes these things had to be done, regardless of the consequences.

“Jayne!” he called as he came down the short staircase and headed to the medical room door. “I... Da shiong la se la ch'wohn tian!” he cursed in astonishment as he saw the state of the place.

The mess was insane, though no real harm had been done, Simon noted as he glanced around. Empty containers overturned and instruments strewn around, it might take a while to get everything clean and tidy again but no real damage had been done, which was something to be grateful for. Still, he couldn’t understand what it was the merc thought he was doing as he tore open a drawer and rifled through the contents.

“Lookin’ for somethin’,” he said gruffly as he tried the next drawer down, the next cupboard over, still apparently not finding the elusive item he wanted.

“Looking for what?” asked Simon, an attempt at calm though his tone suggested he was less so. “Jayne!” he yelled when he received no answer, moving to stop the larger man from making any more mess.

The look Jayne gave Simon the moment his hand caught his arm was one no man wanted aimed his way if’n he wanted to live to see tomorrow. To his credit, Simon was shocked but unafraid as he retracted his fingers and tried for a look of defiance.

“You don’t come in here wrecking my work area without an explanation,” he said definitely, as the two men glared at each other.

Neither was going to throw a punch or anything, Simon knowing he’d probably die at the hands of Jayne if he did, and Jayne sure River would see to it he suffered good for so much as raising a hand to her brother these days.

“Damn it, doc!” the merc yelled after a log moment, slamming his fist against the counter and turning away. “I got me a reason!” he declared angrily, though he made no particular efforts to explain what his reasons might be as he ran a hand over his head.

“I’d have to guess this has something to do with Daniel,” said Simon, feeling foolish the moment Jayne turned and glared at him.

It was ridiculous to state the obvious to a man like him, and in a time of crisis. Still, his brother-in-law was at a loss as to know exactly what he should be saying for the best. Where he was supposed to begin, he hadn’t a clue. Talking to River when she had a mind full of restless spirits and dark memories that were not her own had proven easier than bringing help and comfort to Jayne Cobb. Neither of the two men were at all comfortable in their current situation and it showed on both their faces as they looked at each other then.

“Don’t know what I came here for,” the mercenary admitted with a defeated sigh as he slumped down into an abandoned chair in the corner of the room. “Reckon I had an idea there’d be a pill or potion or some such, make this go away,” he made a vague gesture with his hand that Simon did not follow.

“Make what go away?” he asked carefully, mindful of only making Jayne mad again just when he’d calmed down.

Jayne scoffed at the question, looked amused though it was clear he was anything but.

“’S what ya do, ain’t it, doc? Give folk stuff to ease the pain?” he said sadly, his whole body slumped down in the chair in such a way as to look so beaten and lost that Simon hardly knew what to make of him.

He couldn’t understand what he must be going through, having his teenage son out there in the black, all alone, not knowing where he was or what was happening to him.

Of course, as bad as he may feel for Jayne, it had been pointed out on more than one occasion that Simon wasn’t exactly good at talking to people, regardless of gender, relationship, or situation. He so wished he’d let Kaylee come after Jayne instead of him, she would know what to say, she always did.

“Certain kinds of pain can’t be fixed by drugs,” he said with a sad shake of his head,

“In fact there’s a great deal of ills I shall never be able to solve, no matter how much I wish I could.”

Jayne’s reaction was less than verbal, just one of his usual grunt type sounds that meant little or nothing to Simon. The doctor was soon wondering if he might be best just leaving the other man alone with his thoughts now that he seemed much calmer, but no sooner had he turned towards the door than Jayne spoke again.

“She’s blamin’ me,” he said flatly, making Simon stop dead in his tracks. “Blamin’ me for Danny runnin’, pushin’ me out and won’t let me ruttin’ help her...” He shook his head, feeling so hurt by this, Simon realised, that it was tearing the man up inside, in spite of his usually impenetrable exterior.

“I can’t believe River would blame you at all,” he told him, partially trying to be kind but mostly speaking words he believed to be true. “She is much more level-headed than she once was, sees the world a great deal more clearly than perhaps she ever has before, she has no reason to-”

“She does,” Jayne cut in. “Sees what I did wrong as plain as I do and wants to make me feel gorram sick about it! As if I need her help, the crazy little woman!” he spat some, and though Simon would’ve liked to snap at him for such a comment about his mei mei, he let it slide just this once, given the circumstances.

“I’m not taking sides, Jayne,” he told him as he leant in the doorway, arms folded as he looked decidedly uncomfortable about this whole thing. “I have seen both you and River with Daniel, and as far as I’m concerned you are the best parents he could have.” He smiled some, at least confident in what he said now. “Besides, I rescued my sister from an Alliance facility and got as far as Serenity without a scratch on me,” he said, gesturing to his ownself as Jayne stared at him still. “Daniel is a great deal more space-smart than I was at seventeen, probably than I’ll ever be, so I have no doubt he will survive just fine in the black for a few days until we catch up to him,” he explained.

Jayne took in what the doc was sayin’ and as much as he could go for a fight right now, if only to let out some of his pent up frustrations, he had to admit it made a whole lotta sense. Danny could survive out there, he’d been taught plenty well by him and River both, plus he had his Reader skills and all. Didn’t make Jayne much happier to know he prob’ly caused the boy to bolt in the first place, or that River was at least half blaming him for what happened. Still, helped to think the boy’d be okay 'til they found him, and hell, they’d find him alright. Weren’t a man in the ‘verse Jayne Cobb couldn’t track down, it was why he got hired on this boat in the first place.

“Well, what d’ya know, doc?” he forced a half-true smile as he got to his feet and came over to slap Simon on the back. “You gone done made me feel better some without a one o’ your pills and potions,” he half-joked as he made to leave.

Jayne stopped the other side of the door and turned back to see his wife’s brother carefully stepping back into the medical room to clear up the mess that had been made. With a heavy sigh, he lumbered back into the white space and bent to pick up an armful of tiny packets and bottles he’d slung all over the floor not long before.

When he turned around he caught Simon giving him a questioning look and shrugged his shoulders.

“I made the gorram mess,” he said as explanation as he handed over the fallen supplies.

“Thank you.” His crew-mate smiled genuinely.

“Nah, doc. Thank _you_ ,” he said definitely before turning back to the task at hand.

Simon didn’t have to ask what the thanks were for and chose not to say anything inane like ‘you’re welcome’. He was just happy to have helped, and that he and his so-called brother-in-law could get on this well, even in the face of such adversity. River was probably feeling very proud right about now, presuming she been listening in either by ear or mind, and Simon had no doubt at all that she had.


	6. Chapter 6

Daniel Cobb was feeling pretty free and easy as he wandered through one of the larger villages on the moon of Hecate. Place was plenty civilised, but most folks kept to themselves. Those that did business on Persephone came past here with surplus and seconds to sell to these here poorer folk, make a few extra bucks on what they’d otherwise have to dump someplace. New faces mingled with old, and nobody much paid any mind, making Danny pretty safe to roam, or so he thought.

The marketplace, such as it was, had enough people in it that there was no reason for him to be singled out in particular. Of course, the odds of being made a fuss over was a might higher when you spotted folks who knew your name and face too well. This was why when Danny went to round the next corner he quickly changed his mind, on account of spotting two men he recognised. Ducking back behind the building, Danny peered out careful-like and double-checked he was right. Sure as sure can be, those were two of Badger’s men, and chances were good they’d know him if they saw him.

Now, that particular Persephone-based businessman could be trusted only so far. He seemed to get along with Danny’s Uncle Mal and the rest of the crew enough for them to do a fair amount of business together. Still, there were times aplenty when pistols were drawn, and Danny had no doubt in his mind that if he was seen by the men loading up the cart in the next street, they would take note of his appearance on Hecate.

Before Danny knew it, the crew would be hauling his ass back onto Serenity after a tip off from good old Badger. That wasn’t what he wanted, not in the least bit, and so he stayed put in his hiding place just a little bit longer. After ten whole minutes he was gettin’ mighty bored.

“Tyen-sah duh uh-muo,” he complained in a muttered tone, mindful of drawing attention to himself.

Unfortunately for Danny, he didn’t succeed in staying unnoticed, although it wasn’t anyone working for Badger that spotted him there.

“Who you hidin’ from?” asked a voice, making him jump some, though the boy did his best to cover it, most especially when he turned around and found a girl stood across from him, leaning on the opposite wall of the alleyway.

“Where’d you come from so fast?” he replied with his own question as he stared across at the stranger, probably about the same age he was, but a darn sight prettier bein’ female and all.

“I asked first,” she said smartly, lighting the cigarette between her lips and leaning back against the wall.

“Ain’t hidin’,” Danny told her definitely, sticking out his chin. “Just don’t wanna be seen is all, might start some trouble.”

“Uh-huh.” The mystery girl nodded her head, the smirk on her face suggesting she didn’t necessarily believe him, but she let it ride anyway.

She weren’t like any girl Danny had ever met before. Not all pretty and graceful like Inara, too tall and athletic-like to be like Aunt Kaylee, not so rigid like a soldier as Aunt Zoe, too tanned and tough-looking to be like his Ma.

“You havin’ a seizure or somethin’?” she asked, making Danny realise he’d been staring too long.

Truth be known, she didn’t mind none that he was looking at her that way, but it didn’t do to let it be known.

“I’m shiny,” he told her, adopting a similar laid back position to hers against the opposite wall. “What you doin’ out here anyhow?”

“This ain’t allowed indoors,” she said, showing him the cigarette between her fingers, before taking another drag. “In fact, my Mama sees me with one of these within a clear mile o’ her?” She shook her head. “My life wouldn’t be worth livin’.” She rolled her eyes.

“Ain’t gonna have much of a life you keep on smokin’ those,” he told her. “My uncle, he’s a doctor, showed me some scary sights ‘bout what happens you take up smoking regular.”

“Ain’t like I get a chance to do it regular, or got the coin for it.” She sighed in response, finishing up her cigarette and looking longingly at the butt before dropping it to the ground and crushing it beneath her well-worn boot. “So, you live with this fancy uncle o’ yours?”

“I got me a whole rake of uncles, aunts, and cousins, plus a ma and pa, and a little sister,” he explained, smiling a little as he thought on it.

“Crowded house,” his new friend considered. “There’s just me and my mama here, and she don’t got much time for me,” she said, almost sadly, though Danny failed to notice it seemed.

“Ain’t a house, it’s a boat,” he explained about his own life. “Lived out in the black all my days to now, ones I recall anyhow.”

“What changed?” she wondered aloud as she studied him, reckoning he couldn’t be more than her own age, wondering why anyone would choose to leave a big and presumably loving family out exploring the verse, to come to a place like her home town.

“Man’s gotta stand on his own two feet,” Danny told her definitely, pushing off the wall and standing straight, as if showing his point more clearly to her. 

“S’pose that is true.” She nodded her agreement. “Every man and woman for themselves in the end, I guess.” She sighed, looking back over her shoulder at the sound of a clattering coming from the house. “I should go,” she said then. “but it was nice meetin’ ya...”

“Daniel,” he filled in. “Well, Danny.”

“Name’s Abylene,” she replied in kind, “but most folks call me Lena, on account of I hate Abby,” she said all vehement-like. “Maybe I’ll see ya around, Danny,” she smiled in such a way as to make the young man before her feel a might strange as he watched her walk away.

He sure hoped he would see her around, and afore too much time passed him by.

* * *

“You sure this is, right?” asked Mal as he sat at the table in the galley studying the piece of paper Wash had just handed him.

“Navicomp doesn’t lie, Mal,” his pilot assured him. “’Sides, Shepherd double-checked with maps from the Cortex, this is all the places those two shuttles coulda got to from where we were sat”

“Damn long list,” noted Jayne, which had been the Captain’s point of course.

The ‘verse was whole mass o’ planets and moons, but there were times out in the black when not a one was reachable by shuttle. Just so happened Inara and Danny had chose a place surrounded by suitable destinations for them to fly off to, and now the crew of the Serenity, the two runaways friends and blood kin both, had about as much chance of finding them as they had of finding a sober fella in a free bar.

“Could be we narrow it down by a process of elimination,” suggested the Shepherd as he leant over Wash’s shoulder to re-observe the list of locations. “For example, the further out planets seem unlikely for a first stop. I suggest the closer places are a better bet to start off with, and perhaps focus on places our runaways are more familiar with, where they may have friends and contacts.”

“Can’t say as that’s not the way to track down Danny,” agreed the Captain, “but I gotta think ‘Nara is too smart to go somewhere she knows we’d look for her, if’n it’s the case she don’t wanna be found,” he said with a shake of his head, more saddened than he’d care to admit by the very fact she’d bolted from him in the first place.

Jayne didn’t seem to notice it had been implied his son was less smart than the Companion, but then the boy was maybe too young and inexperienced to realise that headin’ for someplace you’re known was no way to hide. Like Simon said, the kid had enough about him to be safe out there, with a little luck anyhow, but it was still a whole new world for him, being out in the black without his folks watching his back for him.

“Unfortunately, I doubt we can send out too many missing persons announcements, living as we do outside the realms of man’s law,” noted Shepherd Book.

“That is true,” agreed Wash. “but we do have contacts we can trust, folks that can be on the look out for both our runaways and get back to us if they see ‘em,” he noted.

“That bein’ the case, you got some messages to be sendin’,” Mal told him, perhaps a little harshly, but the pilot let it slide, on account of this being a stressful situation already.

“Aye-Aye, Cap’n.” He over-acted the salute a little as he hurried back to the bridge to do his work.

Wash didn’t spot two pairs of eyes peering at him from around the corner. The twins were listening in on the grown ups conversation and the moment they had news to share went scurrying back to the playroom. It wasn’t so much called that, but in essence it was what it was. Save on the kids all messing up each others bunks, driving the adult crew members to distraction, they had their own room to share in what used to be the passenger quarters, back when there was room on the boat for such folks, of course.

Nathaniel and Persephone came to a simultaneous halt in the door way of this room, finding Jessamine still sniffing back tears in the corner and Alyssa looking all kinds of awkward sat next to her. Weren’t that she didn’t love her cousin or feel bad for her that her brother Danny was gone, but comforting was not so much Alyssa’s strong point, no matter how much she tried.

“They found Danny or Aunt ‘Nara yet?” she asked the twins with hope in her eyes.

The twins sadly both shook their heads.

“Your Daddy went to ask everybody,” reported Nathaniel. “Call all the folks we know, ask if they seen ‘em.”

“Danny ain’t close by,” said Jessamine sadly, “or if he is, he don’t wanna be found.” She shook her head.

“Ain’t true, Jessy,” she was told, as Persephone came to sit beside her. “Brothers are dumb sometimes, but they love us.”

“Sometimes,” her own brother told her awkwardly, sitting himself down in the corner and pulling out a dog-eared book from the shelf above. “Uncle Mal reckons it ain’t gonna be easy findin’ Danny or Aunt ‘Nara, but they can’t be far, right?” he said, laying open a page of the apparent atlas for all to see.

“You ain’t even on the right page.” Lyssa rolled her eyes as she came to look over his shoulder. “That’s a whole bunch of worlds on the rim, million miles from us,” she told him as she turned pages to find their current location, or close enough anyhow.

“Hundred places they could be, Sephy,” said Jessy to the little girl who had her arm around her, trying to make her feel better. “Don’t matter much which one they chose, just want them to come home. Want my brother so my folks don’t fret and fight. Want Aunt ‘Nara ‘cause I know it’s hurtin’ Uncle Mal to be without her,” she said, feeling the emotions of others even stronger than her own.

“It’ll all work out,” said her little cousin, holding on tight to her, ever the eternal optimist, just like her Ma.

* * *

“Sounds to me you ain’t given that man much chance to prove you wrong,” said Petaline as she and Inara sat comfortably in her quarters at the Heart of Gold, drinking tea. “Could be he likes the idea of raisin’ young ‘uns along side o’ you.”

“You really don’t know Mal,” said her friend with a sigh, though it was the most ridiculous idea and she knew it.

“’Nara, I maybe ain’t had the trainin’ you and Nandi did, but I got skills from this here job, and I know people better than most,” Petaline told her definitely. “That Captain loves you like no other, that much was obvious first day you came here together,” she insisted. “Now there ain’t a power in the ‘verse gonna stop him wanting to find you, and I don’t see he’s gonna go runnin’ for the hills if’n you tell him why you did so your ownself in the first place,” she said definitely.

Inara didn’t look entirely convinced, though she wished every one of her friends words to be true. Life would never be simple now she was carrying a child. Her job was such that it did not sit well alongside motherhood. How she would make a living out here in the black all alone when with child was anyones guess and not something she had really given enough thought too, that much she knew. Then there was the time she would need to heal after the child was born, and who would take care of him or her whilst Inara worked, in whatever form that job might take?

“I have no idea how you ever coped,” she told Petaline honestly, putting down her tea cup on the table. “Pregnant so young, running this place after poor dear Nandi passed away... and you have raised a fine boy, Petaline,” she told her with a smile.

“Ain’t easy, ain’t gonna pretend it was or is,” said the younger woman with a smile, “but Jonah means the gorram ‘verse to me. I wouldn’t trade him for all the coin in every world spinnin’,” she said fondly as she watched her son out of the window, running around playin’. “Still, I weren’t ever alone. Got my girls and boys here to help me out, best family I ever known.”

“It is strange how those who love us can prove a better support system than even the closest of blood relations,” agreed Inara, thinking of the crew and how she loved them all as she would a family.

In all honesty, they were the best family she had ever known and she had run from them. It wasn’t hard for her to understand why Petaline might thing she was crazy. Still, Inara couldn’t help but be more afraid of facing Mal with the news of her pregnancy than she ever was about facing the black alone. He couldn’t love her after this, couldn’t trust her. He would no doubt question the paternity of her baby and it would be difficult for her to give him proof and assurance until the child was born, at the very earliest. Even if he did believe, he could never be happy as a father, she was certain of it. The way he complained about the other kids, always under his feet, she had no doubt at all he was happy not to have his own brood, he had even told her so.

“Inara,” said Petaline, reaching out a hand to cover hers. “You know you can stay here just as long as you please,” she assured her with a kind smile. “but honey, you gotta think on two important things. One is, I can’t see that man o’ yours just lettin’ you go that easy, he will come lookin’ and you know it. Two is, you really wanna raise this child out here on your own, away from his Daddy and all the folks that hold you dear?”

That was a question that Inara already knew the answer to, and yet she wasn’t quite sure yet it was enough to make her return to a situation of which she was currently so uncertain.


	7. Chapter 7

River had done wrong and she knew it. The bad feeling in the pit of her stomach always told her, even years ago when her mind was beyond muddled, she could tell when the wrong things where her fault and when they were not. Today there was no question in the matter, she had hurt the one she loved most in the ‘verse and now she had to fix it.

She found her husband in the galley, guns laid out on the table to clean. He was unhappy as she was, perhaps even more so since no-one was blaming her for the departure of their son. Poor Jayne, he did not deserve the way she had treated him. Danny was a law unto himself and bound to bolt before long, she knew. The fight he’d had with his father didn’t help at all, but it was not the real cause of his being a runaway.

Somehow sensing her presence, Jayne turned to glance at his wife just briefly before going back to his work, polishing up the weapons he still held dear. He loved his family now, way more than his collection of guns, but they still meant a lot to him, having helped keep him alive years enough. Add to that the fact his collection of weaponry never once yelled at him or blamed him for nothin’, Jayne couldn’t help but like their company better than that of human folk once in a while.

“She shot the messenger,” said River as she moved further into the room and around the table to where he could see her, not that he looked. “Was wrong, unfair,” she added, leaning further into his view, but to no avail.

“You done blamed me for Danny running off the way he did,” he stated plainly, something she still didn’t do much even now her mind was a fair sight less messed up. “Oughta know I was doin’ enough o’ that my ownself,” he said, an edge to his voice that cut River worse than any knife.

She hated that he was trying to hurt her, and more so that it was her own fault. She had hurt her Jayne-man, shutting him out and making their problems his fault. He’d fought with Daniel, they both knew it, but he’d run from both of them. Apportioning blame to each other or anyone else was fruitless and pointless, this River had since realised and felt bad about.

“Darkness here won’t help,” she said with a shake of her head. “Only light will bring him home, just as light found his voice. Remember?” she urged him, putting her hand on his and stilling its movement as he worked on cleaning his guns even now, trying to pretend she wasn’t there or at least that he didn’t care that she was.

“Sure, I remember,” he said, letting his eyes meet hers at last. “Everythin’ was a darn sight easier then, when the boy was three feet tall and did as ya told him.”

“Backward glancing, glass is tinted pink and inviting.” She shook her head, recalling how things were not quite as simple as her husband seemed to think back then.

Their relationship itself had started out more than a little rocky. It was strange to think now that way back then they had been so ill at ease with each other. Though River had always known Jayne would be her man in the end, she had wondered how in the first instance of meeting him. The man himself had been almost afraid of her in the beginning and keen to sell her and her brother back to the Feds as fast as he could. Still shame existed in him for ever thinking such a thing, even now, so many years later.

“Never mean to cause you no harm, not never,” he said sincerely as ever he said anything.

“She knows.” His wife nodded as his fingers wrapped around her own, the pair of them holding on tight. “She always knew, from past to present and future always,” she found a watery smile as she leaned in close and laid her head on his shoulder.

“Gonna find our boy, bao-bei,” he promised, guns now entirely abandoned as he put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “Promise ya that. Gonna put this family back together somehow.”

* * *

Danny was grinning wide as his whole face when he left the village on Hecate and headed back to his well-hidden shuttle. He was smiling because in his hands he held coins he had earned his ownself by completing a days work. Sure, it weren’t much, but it was still his and no-one elses, that’d do for now. Some old lady had all kinds of junk needed shiftin’ out her back yard and nobody was willing to help her out. Danny had been a willing volunteer just for the promise of a decent meal when he was done, but when the woman handed over what she called a well-earned wage to him, well, he weren’t gonna argue none.

From there, he’d headed to the local bar, wantin’ a real mans drink like his Pa would after a hard day. Course he couldn’t afford much decent with the coin he had, but it was good enough, warmed his insides good enough for the walk back to what he called home for the foreseeable.

Up the steps to the door, Danny checked nobody was around as he set about letting himself inside. It was the weirdest thing, he could’ve sworn somebody was watching him. Took but a few seconds to realise he was right as he opened the door only to turn sharply at the feel of a tapping on his right shoulder. The person took her chance to dodge around to the left instead and was there right in front of Danny, framed in the doorway as he turned back around.

“Lookin’ for me?” she said smartly, as she stared back at him with a smile curving her lips. “Ain’t too observant for a man who can stand on his own two feet,” Abylene told him as she backed up a couple of steps into the shuttle.

“How the gorram hell...?” he began but stopped short of asking as she chuckled over his words.

“I lived in this here place since the day I was born,” she explained. “Know it as well as I know my ownself, and there weren’t no ship parked here 'til you arrived,” she told him, a sparkle in her eyes the like of which lit up the whole damn shuttle, or so Danny might’ve let himself think were he not so put out by her sneaking up on him the way she had. “Nice place you got here,” she said as she wandered around the place.

“Works for me,” he shrugged non-comittally. “Meant for one person, not two,” he told her, perhaps a little more sharply than he ought to, though she didn’t seem affronted.

“Ain’t much for company, huh?” she said as she parked herself in the pilots seat and stared out through the plexiglass at the greenery beyond, miming a flight into the black, or so it seemed to Danny. “Guess I can see why livin’ on a ship with so much family and all might get a little crowded, make you wanna run away.”

“Weren’t even like that,” he said with a shake of his head. “Crowded I can cope with well enough, but... ain’t as simple as that.”

“I wouldn’t know.” Lena sighed as she played at flying the shuttle, something she had never done and wouldn’t really know how at all. “Been just me and my Mama since I was a young ‘un,” she explained, as Danny watched her playing like a child with the controls. “Never did worry much about what I was doin’,” she said bitterly, leaning way back in the chair and swinging it around to face Danny now. “Only home I ever knew was here on Hecate, don’t reckon one day of it felt altogether like it,” she smiled sadly.

Honest to goodness, Danny didn’t know what to make of this girl. This was the second conversation they’d had and to him she seemed like two totally different people. If not for the fact she looked identical and wore the exact same clothes, he’d wonder if she were twins playing him for a fool. Hours ago in the marketplace she’d been all confidence and smart-assed, seeming way older than him though he doubted she actually was. Now, sat back in the big pilots chair, talking like a lost lonely girl, she seemed as young as his little sister or something.

“You’re starin’,” she pointed out when she caught him doin’ just that.

“’S what happens when you bust onto a persons ship,” he told her, just as smart as she had been with him, and that seemed to make her smile at least. “Er, you wanna stay a while?” he asked then, not really sure why if he were honest but doing it anyway. “I got some food if you’re hungry or-”

“Okay.” She nodded easily, just as uncertain as to why she was agreeing.

She wasn’t all that hungry, she didn’t really care for company most of the time, and honest to God she weren’t even sure why she’d come here in the first place. Maybe it was because Daniel was the first interesting person she’d met on the moon she called home in a good long while. Maybe it was just because she was bored and coming here was better than staying home. Perhaps if she were honest, Lena would admit that she just couldn’t get this young man’s face out of her head since she met him, and her ever-present curiosity had pushed her here to find out more about him.

Wasn’t long before the pair were sat either end of the short couch on the other side of the shuttle, a dish of less than appetising protein in her hands, and a cup of some kind of coffee in his. Course Lena weren’t really here for the food, only for the company.

“So,” she said, prodding her meal around but not actually putting it in her mouth, “since it seems like we’re set to be friends or somethin’,” she ventured, looking across at him just briefly, “guess you better tell me a little more about yourself.”

“Ain’t much to tell,” said Danny with a shrug, knowing he had to take care on what he told the girl.

Lena seemed decent enough, but there were a whole bunch of secrets in the lives of the Serenity crew, none of which Danny thought he ought to be spillin’ to a girl that was for the most part a stranger so far. End of the day, his Ma was a fugitive still, his Uncle Simon too, and there weren’t one among his crew and family that wouldn’t get into some deep trouble or other if he said the wrong thing here.

“Gotta be something you can share,” she said, putting her bowl down on the floor and pulling her legs up underneath her body some. “Don’t seem to me a guy like you could be so boring as to have no tale to tell.” She smiled, trying to be bold even when a blush began to rise in her cheeks as he stared back at her. “Or is it maybe you got a tale too dangerous o’ somethin’ to be sharin’?” she asked, feeling as girlish as she ever had under the intense gaze he seemed to have fixed her with right now.

Honest to goodness, it weren’t that Danny meant to stare at her. Sure, she was somethin’ worth starin’ at, but it was more’n that. She wanted to know about him, wanted him to talk to her about anythin’ and everythin’ apparently. Danny weren’t so sure he’d had so much interest tossed his way since he was a young ‘un, least that’s how it felt. Weirdest part was, he hadn’t a notion to dwell on his own past, instead he had a want to know all about this young woman sat opposite him.

“You’re the one come sneakin’ onto my ship and eatin’ my food,” he teased her. “Seems to me maybe you oughta be entertaining me afore I share my tales with you.”

“Yeah, ‘cause a girl who ain’t ever been off world has a hundred stories a man of the ‘verse type wants to hear.” She rolled her eyes, reaching into her pocket for her lighter and a last cigarette.

Danny thought about telling her she couldn’t smoke in the shuttle, but the last thing he wanted was to look like a square. ‘Sides, she wasn’t gonna hurt him none with just one cigarette and any damage she did to her ownself, well, he already warned her on that score once today.

“Hey, you wanna hear, I’ll tell,” said Lena, mistaking his odd expression apparently.

Danny watched her lean back against the cool metal of the shuttle’s hull and considered it a kindness that she turned her head away to blow out a stream of smoke. Pushing strands of loose hair back behind her ear that had escaped her ponytail, the girl he met just hours ago brought her eyes back to meet Danny’s and smiled.

“Now, how is it they always start these tales?” she said then. “A long time ago, in a galaxy not so very far away, a girl was born and her Mama called her Abylene,” she said, as if telling a proper fairytale and amusing Danny with her tone and expressions as she went on. “Abylene was named for the grass green of her eyes, and ‘cause Mama couldn’t spare the time to get past page two of the baby names book.” She laughed lightly, no real humour in her tone, Danny realised. “There was no Pa for baby Abylene, nor for any day of her life from that to this. No brothers or sisters, no family but Mama, and she didn’t pay no mind to the young ‘un she got saddled with after one night in the arms of a travellin’ man,” she said, taking a long drag on her cigarette, if only so she had the excuse to look away from Danny when she exhaled.

“This ain’t a happy story,” he said with a frown, wondering at how the tale she was spinning made him feel so bad.

He had run out on his family that he knew gorram well loved him to no end. Sure, he felt like an outsider sometimes and that made him mad but there was never no doubt in his head that his Ma and Pa and all did love him. Seemed to him that Lena had nothin’ and no-one real to care.

“I never promised happy,” she told him, stubbing her spent cigarette out against the wall, “but that don’t mean the story don’t get better,” she said with a smile then, scooting forward some on the couch. “See, little Lena got to be almost seventeen years old, when she met the guy that’d change it all.” She smiled slowly.

Danny weren’t sure what to think by now. Here was girl, similar age to him, and all kinds of pretty and interesting. She was leaning in on him, smellin’ like apple blossom and filling his vision 'til finally her lips touched his own. Seventeen he might be, flown the ‘verse like some kind of adventurer, but womenfolk weren’t something Daniel Cobb knew so well.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how he looked at it, Danny wasn’t given the chance to think through what was happening for long. Seconds after her lips made contact with his, Lena had pulled away again, looking awful strange. He barely had a chance to open his mouth to speak, and no opportunity at all to figure what words he was s’posed to say when she upped and ran away.

“I’m sorry,” she apologised as she bolted from him, leaving Danny wondering what the hell had just happened here.


	8. Chapter 8

Wash was cursing something fierce as he slammed his hand on the console, startling his daughter just a little as she came creeping up onto the bridge to see him. As a rule, the kids were not permitted so close to the controls and all, but being as she was the pilot’s child, Alyssa got special permission when her Daddy was flying.

“Uncle Mal’s still awful mad,” she said, catching her father’s attention as she dropped down the steps at the door and came over to him. “Jessy can’t hardly stop crying,” she said sadly, hating that everyone around her was so hurt and yet she could do little or nothing to help.

“I know, baby girl.” Wash sighed as he picked her up and sat her on his knees, the pair of them looking out at the blackness of space and wondering at it as they always did. “It’s a big ‘verse out there, and we’re trying to find two little people who went off into it, possibly in two very different directions.” He shook his head, knowing this was never going to be an easy task.

“Can’t find folk who don’t wanna be found,” said his daughter, clearly having overheard those words from one of the crew, most likely Mal who was going to a very dark place as hours stretched into days and still no word came from his beloved Inara.

“Sometimes true,” said Wash as he considered her words, “but then, we never want to be found by the Feds and they find us all the same,” he told her.

There was nothing that the crew could hide from the kids, not really. They softened the blow when it came to the ‘verses obvious dangers, did their best not to mention too much detail about the Alliance or Reavers or anything, but they knew the way things were. Each son and daughter of the Serenity crew were aware that they lived under the radar on purpose and things had to stay that way. It was the only way to ensure they all stayed safe, and even then it seemed it was not possible to keep everyone in check, Danny and Inara both had proved that.

“If anyone can find them, it’s us, right Daddy?” asked Alyssa, tipping her head right back to peer at her father, albeit his face appeared upside down from that angle.

“Sure thing, baby,” agreed Wash, dropping a kiss on her forehead, perhaps not as confident as he seemed but having to try his best for her sake.

There were times when Hoban Washburne couldn’t decide what was the most difficult task he had - being a husband, being a father, or piloting this little Firefly they all called home. Every title he held came with its problems, sometimes all at once like they were now. Zoe was worried about Mal and that left Wash to worry about Zoe in turn. Trying to be strong for Alyssa wasn’t easy either, whilst keeping the ship in the air and simultaneously trying to send out notices to find the two runaways, keeping under the radar of the Alliance and anyone else they were trying to avoid at the same time. Nope, Wash didn’t have it easy right now, and yet he wouldn’t change his life for the world.

“Hey Wash!” a voice called from behind them and both the pilot and his daughter turned to see Jayne framed in the doorway. “Any news yet?”

“Sorry, no.” He shook his head in response. “You’d be the first to know if there were,” he promised the merc, hardly able to comprehend how much it must be hurting the guy to have his son AWOL like this.

“We’ll find Danny, Uncle Jayne,” little Alyssa promised as she hopped down off her father’s lap and ran to hug the much larger man’s legs. “And Aunt ‘Nara too. No power in the ‘verse can stop us.” She smiled up at him.

Jayne wished he had the confidence of this little one, or any of the kids that were so determined things would turn out well. It ought to have made him feel better, but all Alyssa really achieved was to remind her Uncle that he had his own little girl all in tears to comfort, and his own son who used to be this young, wide-eyed, and innocent, out in the world without him to watch his back.

“We sent out notices to everyone we can think of that won’t make trouble out of our situation,” Wash assured his crew-mate, as Jayne duly patted Alyssa on the head and sent her back to her Pa, taking the co-pilot’s seat and staring out at the black. “No word back yet but we’re hopeful.”

“Wish I was.” Jayne sighed, hating that in this situation there was little or nothing he could do.

Give him an enemy to shoot at, a place to rob, a job to do, and he was a contented man. Stuff like this, the waiting n’ wondering, made him feel like he was losing his mind. Seemed to him Mal was in the same position, and neither of them was gonna cope too well if somethin’ didn’t happen soon to change things.

* * *

“Do you see it?” said a voice behind him and Danny turned sharply from his view of the ‘verse through the plexiglass screen to see Abylene hovering behind the pilot’s chair of his shuttle. “It’s not how I thought it’d be.”

“I don’t understand,” he told her, unsure as to where he was or why she was here truth be told.

“That’s what you think.” She laughed lightly. “What I thought too, but it’s all relative and relevant... See?” she said, pointing out into the darkness at nothing as far as Danny could tell.

Then his eyes fell on a glimmer in the distance, maybe a star or a planet, but so far away he could hardly make it out at all. Before he had a chance his view was blocked as Abylene moved in front of him, practically sitting in his lap and smiling brighter than any sun he’d ever known.

“Lena.” He shifted awkwardly as she sat straddling him now, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning in so close.

“Shh,” she told him, bringing her lips to his a brief moment. “It’s just the beginning,” she said softly as she kissed him again.

Without thinking, Danny let his hands leave the controls, holding her close as he kissed her back in equal measure, falling into a moment he didn’t know how to stop and didn’t ever want to...

_Thud!_

Daniel Cobb woke with a start, finding himself in a heap on the floor of the shuttle. His blanket was wrapped awkwardly around his legs, proof that he’d fallen out of bed, and a throbbing somewhere significant reminding him all to clear what he’d been dreaming about when it happened.

“Mi tian gohn!” he cursed pulling himself up to a sitting position. “Gorram woman,” he said of Abylene as he ran a hand over his face and tried to get his head straight.

She was something else, that was for sure, and all Danny had been able to think about since he met her, pretty much. After she came here to see him and they’d talked, then she’d laid that kiss on him, well, it was all Danny could do to remember how to breathe nevermind any other gorram thing.

Way she’d been talkin’ in his dream was so weird, almost like his Ma used to talk when she got confused. Made Danny wonder how much was just his head playin’ tricks and how much might be rooted in truth. He’d been known to dream stuff before that came to be, or told him stuff he never coulda known. Came from bein’ a Reader like his Ma and Jessy, but his Ma and Pa both had taught him well that you didn’t mess with such a gift if’n you were given it.

Weren’t the proper thing to go digging into other folks heads if’n it weren’t necessary, and Danny had learnt to keep his Reader abilities in check for the most part. That didn’t mean he didn’t feel things he didn’t always understand. Faced with the prospect of kissing Lena, the young woman’s mixed up emotions got tangled in with his own 'til Danny weren’t right sure which belonged to each of them. Now he’d been dreamin’ the same thing, with her talking ‘bout seeing something coming on the horizon and all... made him wonder if there was way more to his meeting her than he ever could’ve guessed.

Two things Danny knew for sure, and there were only two right now, a) kissing Lena had felt like electric passed through him in the best way, and b) when she bolted from here, her head was as muddled as anything he’d ever known the whole course of his life, with the possible exception of his poor Ma’s head, how it used to be.

Danny was certain there was more to Abylene than met the eye, his dream proved it if’n reality hadn’t, and sure as the worlds turned, he couldn’t leave this place 'til he found out just exactly what that was.

* * *

If any person had seen Inara Serra as she was now, they would’ve said she looked happy. Of course, anyone who thought that was not all that observant, since a closer look at the woman’s face showed old tear tracks and red-rimmed eyes that had not yet completely faded, and the pain that sat deep in her eyes was plain and startling when spotted. Yes, she wore a smile and forced a chuckle of laughter as she chatted with the girls from the Heart of Gold, helping to hang out the laundry, and running around playing childish games with her friend’s son, Jonah, but that proved nothing.

Petaline watched from the window a moment, knowing however much happiness Inara tried to muster, she had to blow it to all hell in a matter of seconds. In her hand she held a piece of paper that would ruin everything, but then there wasn’t so very much to spoil, truth be told. Inara had known from the second she broke atmo she couldn’t stay here long. Her man was gonna come looking for her, loved her too much to let her go without some kind of fight. Here was the proof, here in Petaline’s hand, a notice received from a Firefly class ship, looking for them it had lost.

Taking a breath, Petaline went out to the back door and called for her friend.

“’Nara!” she yelled, forcing a smile as she did so. “Got somethin’ I need to talk to you about, honey,” she said and though a frown crossed her face momentarily, Inara still found a smile as she left the girls to their work and little Jonah to his playing, and came back inside to talk to her friend.

“Is something wrong, mei mei?” she asked as she joined Petaline, seeing the worried expression her friend now wore.

“Not entirely,” she said with a sigh as she handed over the piece of paper in her hand, watching Inara’s eyes go wide as she read what appeared to be a missing persons notice or similar. “Word came through just an hour ago. Tried to tell ya that man o’ yours weren’t gonna let you go none too easy,” she explained, as Inara finished reading. “Yeah, seems you ain’t the only runaway neither,” added Petaline when she noted that it was the second paragraph on the paper that seemed to have shocked Inara more.

“I can’t believe Daniel would run away.” She shook her head. “He’s such a good boy, despite his father... Oh, I was hoping to double bluff Mal on this one,” she changed tack as her mind moved a mile a minute, switching now to her own situation. “Heart of Gold would be an obvious place for him to find me, I was counting on him thinking me more intelligent than that.” She sighed.

“’Nara, come on,” said Petaline, grasping her friends hands in hers and making her look her in the eye. “You gotta think about this. Got one of your kinfolk out there, tryin’ to make it alone. Chances are good your whole crew is panicking over him and you both, and you got more than just yourself to consider here,” she said definitely, eyes flitting to Inara’s stomach and back, though as yet she barely showed any sign of pregnancy, especially in her loose layered dress.

“I was hoping to have more time here to think.” Inara shook her head. “I simply don’t know where to begin.”

“Can’t rightly tell ya what the right decision to make is,” Petaline told her then. “but one thing I do know for sure, honey? You can’t keep on runnin’ forever,” she said definitely.

If nothing else, Inara knew that was perfectly true.


	9. Chapter 9

Inara stared out at the darkness of space, miles of black set with a scattering of shining silver stars that usually brought an easy smile to her lips. Today the velvet sky was not so inviting, the glitter of the heavenly bodies round her held no warmth or comfort. Leaving the Heart of Gold had been hard, not as hard as leaving Serenity perhaps, but it pulled at her insides to have to walk away from people she loved and that loved her for a second time.

She had no choice, of course, Inara knew that. Staying with Petaline, Jonah, and the girls would have been pleasant enough, a home away from home in many ways. Unfortunately, it was not a safe place for her to run to if she did not want to be found by her family, the non-blood kin that loved her and that she loved just as much. They had been a part of her life so many years, so very much more than soldiers, mechanic, pilot, doctor... Every one was brother and sister to her, every child a little niece and nephew to love.

Inara thought of Daniel Cobb then, the first to call her ‘Aunt ‘Nara’ and she had been proud of that title, she still was. She wondered at his running away. She knew her own reasons, but his were unclear to her. He fought with his parents, mostly Jayne, about not being able to go out on jobs with the others, and there were times the younger kids seemed to drive him to distraction, but his love for his family was always as evident as anyone elses. Bolting from his family seemed so unlikely, not least because he had gone so many of his younger years without them.

There was simply not room enough in Inara’s head for all the reasoning as she switched the shuttle to autopilot and turned her seat away from the window. Her stress levels were only rising further as she thought on Daniel’s being lost in the ‘verse. She knew that was no good for her own child, remembered so many things Simon had said when River, Kaylee, and Zoe had been carrying their babies. Her running away would have done nothing for her health, she was smart enough to know that, and yet she’d done it all the same.

With a sigh, Inara hit buttons on the Cortex screen that was before her now, wincing at the sight of too many messages left. Possible clients begged for her attention, but she could not face them. Her pregnancy made her wary, but more than that, her mind could not be on the men like this when all she really craved right now was to be in the arms of just one.

Malcolm Reynolds was a singular sort of man, like no other Inara had ever met in her life. Quite a feat given the sheer number of male clients she had dealt with over the years, and a whole other set that she had refused. She had never met a man quite like the Captain, never been quite so infuriated by a person as him. It was the way he could so easily anger and distress her in the early days that had shown her just how much she cared for him. Before long, she was so in love it was almost impossible to deny any longer. Her choices had been to give in an admit her feelings, or to run away. Back then she had faced her fear and had been so much better off for it. This time, running held more appeal somehow.

It wasn’t that she needed to see the ‘verse, she had done quite enough of that with her crew of precious family at her side. Seeking out other men was never her objective as she still saw plenty of them, albeit not for the ‘full service’ these days, as Mal himself would refer to it. She craved no different views or alternate future, but poor Inara was unable to see a way for her happiness to last if she stayed aboard Serenity.

Giving up her job as a Companion would not be so very difficult, not if she could replace that world with one so bright and beautiful as to keep her content. A husband and a child of her own, it was the family unit that would fulfil Inara better than any other situation, she was sure of it, in spite of the fact she had rarely considered it until such time as it was thrust upon her.

Tears came to Inara’s eyes at the bittersweet thought of her future. Alone with her child she would survive but she would never be truly happy. Perhaps Petaline had been right all along. A bright and happy family life was within the Companion’s grasp,things she thought she would never have, and she was so afraid of losing everything, she threw it away.

It was like a moment of epiphany for Inara as she grabbed at the shuttle’s controls, and sniffed back her tears. She had been such a fool, running away like a child. Danny had done the same but he had the excuse of being seventeen and somewhat naïve. She was a woman of the world is so many ways, she ought to know better.

Plugging co-ordinates into the screen before her, Inara knew she was making the right decision as she set a course for Persephone. From there she stood a good chance of tracking down Serenity, her world, her family. This had been a foolhardy trip, but it had given her time to think at least. Now she knew, it was time to go home.

* * *

Danny hadn’t got even half way from the shuttle to town when he was surprised by the sight of Abylene all but running toward him. She was signalling to him afore she ever reached him, gestures that told him to stop and turn back, though for the life of him he couldn’t understand why.

“C’mon,” she urged him, before he had a chance to ask what was happening, grabbing at his hand as she continued to run back the way Danny had come. “Kawichur hun-rien duh di gahng.”

The shuttle came into sight before long and at least then it seemed Danny might get an explanation for what he could only describe as ruttin’ fong-luh behaviour!

“Lena, what the gorram hell are ya doin’?” he asked, pulling his arm from her grasp now they had reached what she deemed to be relative safety.

“Couldn’t let ya go wanderin’ into town like that.” She shook her head definitely, pushing hair out of her face that’d fallen from her ponytail. “I heard menfolks talkin’ ‘bout some runaway kid in a shuttle,” she explained. “Said they overheard about it from some other men that might know ya”

Daniel frowned at her words. Even if his folks had sent out word sayin’ they was looking for him, they’d be awful careful on who they asked. The wrong folks knew he was out in the ‘verse alone, could turn out bad for everyone. Seemed however careful they had tried to be had not been careful enough. It was only thanks to Abylene he hadn’t wandered into some trap or other, no doubt.

“Thanks,” he said genuinely as he stopped staring thoughtfully into space and focused on her face.

Ai ya, but she was all kinds of good looking and interesting. Add to that the dream he’d had about her, and the brief reality they’d shared so far and this girl had Danny all long-suh whenever he looked her way. Seems she noticed his expression and weren’t too comfortable under his gaze neither.

“You’re lookin’ at me funny,” she told him, shoving her hands in her pockets as she leaned back against the shuttle behind her. “Wanna tell me why?” she asked, feeling the strangest mix of worry, embarrassment, and elation that he would want to waste his time just lookin’ at her.

“Wish I could tell ya,” he said with a shake of his head, as he moved to unlock the shuttle and let them inside.

She wandered in ahead of him, checking out all the nooks and crannies of the little ship she had seen only briefly last night. In the daylight it was all clearer, brighter, prettier somehow in spite of the fact it was a drab gun-metal grey throughout. By the steering column she spotted a picture tacked to the dash and her fingers ran over the pencil drawn image of what appeared to be mother, father, and child.

“This your family?” she asked with a smile that only grew as Danny moved up beside her and peered over her shoulder.

“Yeah,” he told her. “That’s Ma and Pa, and Jessy,” he explained. “I actually drew that.”

Abylene’s smile grew at that, not only because she thought it was awful sweet that Daniel loved his family so much, but also because this was her dream. Parents, siblings, people that’d love her like she was special. Nobody ever did that for her, not from the day she was born to this.

“Here’s what I don’t get,” she said then, turning sharply to face Danny. “You seem to care so much for your family, and they must care enough about you to come lookin’, which is more than I could say for my Ma,” she said sadly. “How come you wanted to strike out alone like you did?” she wanted to know.

Danny would’ve explained if he knew his ownself. He seemed to have reasons enough when he ran away, wanting to prove himself a man and all so his Pa and Uncle Mal and everyone would understand he shouldn’t be treated like a kid no more. Now he hadn’t an idea how he was really going to achieve his goal and he was missin’ home already.

“It’s complicated,” he said at length. “Hell, everything’s complicated,” he declared, running a hand back through his cropped dark hair. “Not least you,” he added, more quietly and so Abylene only just heard him.

“Me?” she gasped, almost laughing at how dumb that comment had been. “No way, I’m as simple to figure as anything,” she insisted.

“Ain’t nothing simple about kissing a person outta the blue and running off without an explanation,” he told her, caught halfway between anger and frustration as he spun to face her then, pointing a finger in accusatory fashion.

“Oh, yeah.” Poor Lena looked suddenly awkward again. “Well, I can’t explain that,” she admitted. “Wish I could.” She shrugged her shoulders, finding the floor awful interesting.

Confused Danny to no end how she could switch from all confidence and style one second to a shy little girl the next. She was a contradiction all wrapped up in a gorgeous shell. So far in his young life the only women he’d known well were family by blood or other bond. Still, he’d seen all kinds of beauty on a whole mess o’ planets these past years, never seen a one that made him wanna stare as much as Abylene.

“You should prob’ly go if’n you don’t wanna be found,” she said then, breaking his train of thought that he hadn’t been following too well anyhow.

“Yeah, guess so,” he muttered his reply, watching her move to go past him to the door and leave, then suddenly feeling a frustrated ball of anger rise in his chest that just had to be allowed to escape. “Gorram women!” he declared, startling Lena some. “My Pa and my Uncles warned me good, they mess with your ruttin’ head!” he spoke to himself more than her to start off with but his eyes caught hers a moment later and the look his gave her pinned her to the spot. “Yesterday I wanted outta here,” he said definitely. “Then you come along and...” He shook his head, not even knowing how to explain, hardly knowing what he was thinking or feeling right now - this was crazy.

Lena couldn’t move, couldn’t hardly breath and was glad she stayed to see what happened next when suddenly Danny was before her, an arm reaching to pull her close and his lips on hers in a long, hard kiss. They neither of them really knew what they was doin’. She only ever got kissed once her whole life and that had been the most awkward moment ever. Chances were good he hadn’t hardly any experience neither, but that didn’t matter. This felt good, like electric and fire and all kinds of goodness. All at once Danny pulled away, and Lena was sure she’d pitched forward into the floor were it not for his arm still holding onto her.

“You gonna run out on me again?” he asked, staring down into her eyes.

“No,” she said too softly, wondering where her usual confident tone had gone, or the feeling in her legs for that matter. “I don’t know what’s happenin’ here,” she said, searching his eyes for answers she couldn’t find in herself. “Danny, I known you no more than a day and I... I can’t explain it to ya, but I don’t want you to leave here,” she told him honestly.

“I know.” He nodded once. “I don’t wanna go,” he admitted, “but that don’t make no sense, and then I had this dream last night...” he trailed off not knowing how to tell her what had happened in his minds eye, not without making a fool of himself.

“What dream?” she asked curiously, the serious look on her face giving way to a hopeful almost cocky kind of a smile as she asked; “Was I in it?”

“You were,” he admitted, too lost in her eyes and this overwhelming feeling to say more.

There they stood a long moment, just wondering on what was happening here. Somethin’ had them all kinds of connected, and it made not an ounce of sense to either one of them. Truth be known, they both felt kinda crazy right now, but if that was what it took to be together, then they’d deal with that. All her born days, Abylene had never felt at home, despite the fact she was Hecate-born and raised. Here and now, in the arms of a young man she hardly knew, this was home to her, and she didn’t ever want to leave.

“If you’re gonna go,” she said suddenly, “take me with you.”

“Lena.” Danny looked appropriately shocked at the suggestion. “I couldn’t just-”

“You could, you can,” she insisted, holding on tight to him. “Danny, there ain’t nothin’ for me here, you know that,” she told him, almost desperately. “My mama, she’d barely miss the goin’ of me and I always wanted to see the ‘verse anyhow.”

Daniel Cobb was for once speechless, which didn’t happen too often. With parents like his, he’d grown up learning to speak as he found and say what he felt. Right now, he wasn’t so sure he could make out one coherent thought or emotion amongst the mess of stuff swirling inside his head and heart.

“If I did that...” he said after a long moment. “I mean, you sure you wanna leave here?” he asked her seriously. “Your home and everythin’, just to fly with me?” 

“Yes.” Lena’s answer was as instant as it was definite as she smiled up at him, her gaze not wavering a moment. “Stupid as it sounds, I never been so sure of anythin’ my whole born days,” she swore to him. “Only take me a few minutes to run back to town, get my stuff, get out. Nobody’d miss me for hours and we could be far gone from here.”

Lena spoke of how simple their escape could be, and though the sensible part of Danny’s brain was screaming at him not to be a fool, he wanted to do this. Abylene was as grown as he was, she wanted to go and he wanted to take her with him, more than anythin’ else in the ‘verse. He’d come here lookin’ for adventure, seemed he’d got one for sure now, he realised as he gave his agreement to Lena’s plan by kissing her firmly on the lips once again.


	10. Chapter 10

The galley on a Firefly class ship was of a fair size, but with the expanding crew aboard Serenity, the table itself had to be made a little bigger over time. These days there was just about enough room for everyone around the great wooden structure, and on a normal day you would find dinner being taken with Mal and Inara at either end of the table and the rest of the crew, adults and kids both, sat six aside in whatever order they wanted at the time.

This particular day, two important persons were missing from chow time. It weren’t the first day Inara and Danny had both been gone, but for more than one reason the whole family of crew hadn’t been able to sit down together till now. It made it all the clearer who was missing, and the usual cheery setting was decidedly solemn for a change.

River and Jessy might be the only two Readers here present, but common sense told the others they were all best off not talking right now. Mal was in perhaps the worst mood, feeling the loss of his lover very strongly, blaming himself in all kinds of ways the crew was sure of it. Then there was Danny, the first kid they’d had aboard Serenity and who he’d helped to take care of all these years. He partly blamed himself for that too, and for the pain Jayne, River, and Jessy had to be suffering at the loss of their son and brother.

“Mommy?” a little voice whispered next to Kaylee and she leant in close to hear what her daughter had to say. “It’s too quiet,” said Sephy, all innocence in her words and looks.

“Just eat your dinner, Persephone,” her father urged her equally as softly, casting his eyes towards Mal just a moment, before focusing back on his own food.

“Little one’s right,” the Captain said so suddenly and sharply he got the attention of the entire table whether he wanted it or not. “Seems like a gorram wake rather than a family meal. Ain’t no need for bein’ silent on account of me.”

“Ain’t just that, sir,” said Zoe with a shake of her head. “Not sure one of us knows what to say at such a time as this.”

“Nothin’ to say and nothin’ to do,” muttered Jayne. “That’s what drives a man crazy.”

“As Danny felt,” his wife threw in, knowing they all realised now why their special boy had run away by now.

Of course, that didn’t bring him back any faster, nor Inara neither for that matter. They were two people down and the fact of it affected everybody and everything, no matter how much they’d all like to deny it and move on regardless.

“Have you had no luck with the waves you sent out, Wash?” asked Book hopefully, from further down the table.

“Nothing yet.” The pilot shook his head. “but I’m still tryin’, not giving up yet... or ever actually,” he amended when he realised his phrasing wasn’t quite right.

“I’m sure all will be well.” The Shepherd smiled, trying to reassure the worried kids as much as anybody.

He never had been anybody’s Grandpa, but Serenity had made him so, to so many dear children now.

“Who told you that, Shepherd? Your precious God?” Mal snapped too loudly, making everybody jump as his fork clattered down onto the plate below.

It was the strangest thing because everyone, including the Captain himself, expected a voice to say his name them, tell him to calm down and that Book was only trying to help. Inara was the one that always did that, almost always smoothed out such a situation as this. The fact that they all heard her clearly in their heads without her being there to actually speak was eerie to say the least, and bothered Mal enough that he could no longer stay as he was at the table.

He was up and gone in an instant, muttering in Chinese and leaving the crew to wonder on what came next. Adults and children alike all looked to each other for an answer of some kind, a direction to take, but none was obvious.

“Dark inside again,” said River softly, staring at nothing in particular as Mal’s angry mood channelled through her, making her shudder. “She was the light that sparked all other brightness. Without, he is lost in the caves again.”

“Be alright, bao bei,” her husband assured her, putting his large hand over her tiny one on the table. “Cap’n just don’t handle this kinda thing well. Ain’t got someone to lean on like me and you has,” he reminded her.

“I hate seein’ him suffer like this,” said Kaylee, completely put off her food and apparently close to tears at the idea of her Cap’n hurting too damn much.

“Unfortunately, there is some pain that can’t be cured by my skills or supplies.” Simon sighed, wishing so often he had a magic pill to take away heart-ache or loss.

It didn’t work that way of course, these kind of problems had to be solved in other ways, and by people simply learning to get by and cope with the curveballs life too often threw.

A moments silence broke with a start as Jessy got to her feet too quickly and almost took a tumble.

“Uncle Mal!” she screamed like a person possessed by something, and River caught on too late to what her daughter had seen.

A loud beeping started up, an alarm triggered from the bridge, but it was all too late. Wash never even got the chance to react, nobody had a moment to think nevermind ask what in the gorram hell was happening.

An almighty crash followed, a horrendous jolt, and a shuddering shaking that sent everyone tumbling from their seats as Serenity suffered the impact of something very solid hitting her.

And then the lights went out.

* * *

All was peaceful aboard the shuttle that Daniel Cobb was calling home for the foreseeable. The sky beyond the windows was dark as night and inside the lights were dimmed as his only passenger slept in the bed behind him. The controls no longer needed his attention and the sky could show him nothing he had not seen a thousand times. Turning the pilot’s chair around, Danny looked over at Abylene, sleeping peacefully it seemed.

He hadn’t taken much convincing to bring her along on this trip, and for the life of him he still didn’t understand why that was. Weren’t like girls didn’t interest him none, he was a seventeen year old boy after all and not a bit shy. He liked womenfolk well enough, much like his father before him, though he was perhaps a little more naive in the way relationships and such were meant to work. All Danny knew for sure was that he had feelin’s in him that wouldn’t let him leave Lena behind when she begged to come along on his adventure with him. He couldn’t have harm come to her, nor no pain exist in her, ‘cause sure as the worlds turned any hurt she felt would gorram kill him by proxy.

With his mind all relaxed and wanderin’, he was open to anythin’ that wanted to fly in there and take over. Something startled the young man then, so much it would have been evident to anyone who could’ve seen him. Danny was suddenly bolt upright in the pilot’s seat, a strange mess of images filling his head and fear that was not his own gripping at his very soul.

“Lena?” he said softly as he got up from his seat and walked slowly over to the foot of the bed.

Caught in some kind of sudden nightmare, she shifted in her sleep, turning one way and then the other. Danny might’ve considered waking her, holding her to bring comfort and tellin’ her everything was okay, it was just a dream, but he couldn’t. To do those things would be to lie to her, he realised, as his mind became attuned to hers in the oddest way and he came to live a few moments in the world she saw behind her eyes. It was a place he recognised because he had been here before, both in dreams and startling reality.

Here was the reason why Abylene’s mother could not care for her, why she always felt so lost, and why the pair of them had come to feel connected so gorram quick. The black walls, the eerie blue light, the men in gloves and masks looming beyond the glass cages that held each of them.

Danny closed his own eyes, trying to push away the fear-filled memories but they would not go. He had lived in this world that Lena was seeing in her dreams, and she had been at his side then as she was now, though it was apparent that in her waking hours she had no clue.

How Daniel was ever going to explain this he had no idea, as he sank down to sit on the edge of the bed and stared at the young woman who seemed to quieten down now as her dreams took a turn to better, happier things. Abylene was not Hecate-born and raised like she told him, though Danny thoroughly believed that this was the tale she had been spun and had gratefully accepted. Lena was not born at all but created as he was, and in the self-same lab, he was certain of it now.

Danny had never really considered that he was one of many. The chances were good he weren’t the only child made in that God-forsaken Alliance-run hell, but the odds of more’n one being shipped out of there were slim, and to think they’d survive even less likely. Now their paths had crossed and that was almost one coincidence too far for Danny. He’d be suspicious, think this was all a set up, a game, a trap maybe, but he couldn’t believe it. He’d never read a person wrong, never seen a dream that wasn’t real enough in the head of himself or another.

Abylene was proving to be even more of a mystery than he could ever have guessed, and the worst of it was, she seemed completely oblivious to it all. She believed she was from a moon around Persephone, an ordinary girl living an ordinary and beyond-boring life until one day he came along and swept away from all this. Their connection from the past sure explained a lot. Showed Danny how he’d come to care so much for her so fast and her for him too. Still, it left the young man with an almighty problem. When Lena woke up he had to explain this all to her, ‘bout her folks most like not bein’ her kin at all, about her past bein’ nothing like what she thought it was.

How in all the verse was he going to do that without breaking her heart?


	11. Chapter 11

When Abylene awoke, she wasn’t entirely sure where she was at first. The lights above her were bright like stars but she was not outside. The bed beneath her was softer than her own, a little larger too. Sitting up, she pushed her hair out of her face and spotted the figure of a young man pacing before her. A smile curved her lips as she recalled the day before, her decision to run from her home moon and take a flying leap into the future and Daniel Cobb’s arms.

It wasn’t just that he was the most swai young man she had ever come across, though that didn’t hurt at all. Weren’t even that when he kissed her she couldn’t remember her own name. Nope, it was every single thing about Danny that made Abylene wanna spend her years touring the ‘verse with him, positive as she was she’d never be bored nor unhappy just so long as she was with him. Unfortunately, he didn’t look so pleased with their arrangement right now. Truth be known, he looked awful upset about somethin’.

“You changed your mind,” she said suddenly, startling Daniel from his deep thoughts and making him stare at her. “You wanna take me back to Hecate and dump my ass there, don’t ya?” she said sadly, swinging her legs out of the bed and reaching for her pants to pull back on.

“Ain’t even like that,” he assured her, turning his back a moment while she dressed. “I just... Abylene, we gotta talk,” he said, unsure whether he could turn around until her hand on his shoulder let him know she was there. “I’m serious,” he said as he looked down into her eyes.

“I know.” She nodded solemnly, his tone and every feature showing her just how serious he really was. “Whatever it is we gotta talk about, there’s one thing I wanna say first,” she told him, leaning in fast before he had a chance to argue and planting a kiss on his lips. “I don’t regret getting on this shuttle with you,” she told him straight. “Whatever you say next don’t change that.”

Danny wasn’t sure whether her words and actions made him feel better or worse about what he had to do next. Telling her the truth might well break her heart, but the fact she trusted him so much was a good thing, meant she shouldn’t doubt what he had to try and explain.

“Okay,” he said then, sitting her down in the pilot’s chair though he faced her into the large room of the shuttle and stood before her. “The first thing I gotta tell ya... well, see, I have this gift,” he told her, believing it best to start from the only beginning that made sense right now. “I’m what they call a Reader.”

“A Reader?” echoed Lena. “Like minds and all?” she guessed, not knowing much of such a subject herself, but unable to figure what else he could mean.

“Yeah.” Danny nodded into his answer, watching her face for any reaction. “My ma and my sister are just the same. Means sometimes I might know things you’re thinkin’,” he explained. “Not that I look on purpose so much, I just... I feel it, I can’t help it.” He shook his head, as Lena stared at him some.

She looked confused more’n anything else, and that was ‘cause she was feeling exactly that. It was maybe the last thing she’d expected Danny to say to her, and now that he had it felt like a lot to take in. Still, when she thought on it a little, she soon realised it wasn’t a problem. After all, it wasn’t like he’d go diggin’ around in her mind on purpose, and not as if he’d find much of interest if he did.

“Ain’t nothin’ in my head you didn’t oughta see,” she said eventually. “Well, maybe a couple of things...” she added, wishing the words unsaid a second later as her brain caught up with her mouth.

She had implied just exactly what she had meant, though she never meant for Danny to know it. It made her cheeks turn pink and his own get a tinge of red to ‘em too, truth be told.

“Is that all you had to tell me?” she asked then, clearing her throat and hoping to break the oddly awkward moment that had settled between them. “I mean, it ain’t such a big deal-”

“That ain’t all,” Danny interrupted, knowing it was rude to do so but also aware that if’n he didn’t get this out soon he’d lose his nerve and never let on that he knew the truth about her that was even a secret to her ownself. “Abylene, when you was sleepin’, you had a nightmare.”

“I did.” She nodded, shuddering a little at the memory of it, her expression too serious and almost scared even now. “Weren’t no fluke neither. I get it a lot, have done ever since I was a little bit of a thing,” she confessed.

“And I know why,” he told her, knowing this explanation was gonna be even harder for her to hear than it was for him to say, but right now it felt tough enough from his side, thank you very much. “See, I know that place you dream about, and it ain’t no made up world, Lena,” he told her straight. “That place, it’s an Alliance facility,” he explained. “And... well, I weren’t born natural to my folks, I was made,” he said, hating that this was the truth, “in that place, in a lab, to be some kind o’ soldier-”

“I don’t understand,” interrupted Lena, shaking her head.

Danny was made in a lab, at least that’s what it seemed like he was saying, but that didn’t make no sense. He seemed human enough to her, he was a man, she was certain, and as alive and normal as she was, far as Lena could tell. The implications of her dreamin’ about this place he was s’posed to have been created in, well, she didn’t like to think what that part meant at all.

“It’s complicated, I know,” Danny sympathised, sinking down to crouch before her and take both her hands in his own, “but see, when I saw your dreams, I recognised you.” He smiled at that part at least, looking in her eyes and recalling so clearly how they had been before, a long time ago, almost a lifetime away from this place. “I remember who you are. Lena, you was in that place with me, we were friends there,” he told her, in the vain hope it might trigger something in her head, even a vague memory would do. “I don’t know why you don’t remember or how you come to be on Hecate but...”

“I was born there!” she yelled too suddenly, tearing her hands from his grasp and getting to her feet. “I was born to my ma, from her night with some traveller,” she insisted, scrambling to get away from him, looking like a startled but angry deer in the headlights of a big truck.

Danny knew why she was reacting like this. He felt the pain and confusion coming off her in waves, a whole mass of swirling memories making her dizzy. Lena put her hands to her head as she backed up against the wall, feeling like she was losing control of her own mind right now. What Danny was telling her, a part of her believed him, though she couldn’t figure why, All the things she thought were dreams, all the tails her Ma had spun, it was all so mixed up and painful to remember.

“I’m from Hecate,” she repeated, as if trying to convince herself more than Danny or anyone else.

“No, Lena, that’s what they told you,” he told her carefully, trying his best to be calm and grown-up about this, hoping she wouldn’t try to get away again as he approached her. “I know it ain’t true, and you know it just the same,” he said gently, as he reached out for her, his hand on her arm.

She peered at him through tear-filled eyes, so many memories hitting her all at once. So far from the tough street-wise young woman he had met a couple of day before, Abylene now appeared to be a lost little girl, so in need of his help.

“They lied to me,” she cried, allowing herself to fall into Danny’s arms and be held tight.

“They told you stories, made you forget,” he explained as he tried to soothe her, tried to make things clearer in her muddled head, “but it’s in there, it’s all in there. That place, how we come to be, and me,” he said as he moved to see her face. “I was there, and you remember,” he told her, wiping away her tears with his thumbs now. “That’s why we know each other so good after just one day.”

Abylene nodded her head, knowing now he was right. It was a hell of a shock and would take a good while to completely get over, but in a lot of ways the tears she cried now were of relief. This explanation removed so many worries and concerns she had all her life - why she had these nightmares, why her Ma never seemed to care much, why she never felt truly happy or at home until she meant Daniel Cobb.

“You okay, Lena?” he asked her when she was quiet too long, just staring up at him as if in a daze.

“Danny, what am I?” she asked shakily. “What are we?” she wanted to know, the only question that was still really worrying her right now.

“Don’t think about what we was, or what they meant for us to be,” he said with a shake of his head, catching another stray tear as it sped down her cheek. “Think about what we is now. Lena, we found each other, and that’s important,” he told her definitely. “Ain’t gotta worry no more, ‘cause we got each other,” he promised.

At that, Lena managed a watery smile and leant in to kiss Danny on the lips, before wrapping her arms tight around him, gripping so tight he could hardly breathe. It didn’t bother Danny none, if he could give up oxygen just to keep on holding her like this, he’d do it right in this second. He meant what he said, they had each other now, and he was certain they would never let each other down. They had a bond nobody could break, and that was gonna matter more than anything now they was out here alone together in the ‘verse.

* * *

When River awoke, she wasn’t entirely sure where she was at first. The lights were out, everywhere dark as the black and more so, since there were no stars overhead. The surface beneath her was hard and cold, Serenity’s floor, she knew, though there was no warmth, no gentle vibration of her breathing. Sitting up carefully, she pushed her hair out of her face and surveyed the devastation before her. A frown furrowed her brow as she recalled the moments before this, her child’s scream, the flashing pictures in her head that told River all too late what was coming.

“Abandon ship, can’t be done,” she said to herself, the only voice in the darkness at first.

“River?” her name echoed through the open space, and River scrambled to her feet, glad to find her limbs all moved quite easily, very little pain or injury suffered.

“Jayne-man is hurt,” she said as she crouched beside her husband in the dim light.

Her eyes were adjusting now and she could see her precious Jayne holding his head, blood oozing from a gash above his eye. No doubt he had been struck by falling debris, evidence of it was everywhere. Dishes, pots and pans, lanterns, chairs, everything from the galley area had been thrown haphazardly around, including the people who had been at the table.

“Jessy!” said Jayne suddenly, the mist in his head clearing enough for him to realise he could not see his daughter.

“Daddy?” her voice called from far off and as Jayne and River scrambled to reach her, others around them began moving.

It was with Wash and Zoe’s help that the broken and overturned dining table was lifted, freeing Jessy and Alyssa both, who had been completey hidden from view. Thankfully it seemed they had suffered no more than the shock of the events that had occurred, though it was clear others might not be so lucky. Zoe checked her daughter over, as Wash moved quickly to the kitchen area and hunted out a flashlight he knew was there somewhere. He returned in a moment, illuminating every area of the room.

Book sat in the far corner, unmoving as far as they could tell, and River immediately ran to his aid.

“He lives,” she said with a sigh of relief. “He breathes, but shock has wounded him, rendered him still,” she told the others as she looked deep into the blank eyes of the kindly man who she had always loved as a grandfather or similar. “She knows you’re scared,” she told him, “but all is safe now, for most, all shall be well,” she promised him.

“What happened?” asked the Shepherd shakily as he allowed River to help him to his feet.

Nobody knew the truth enough to tell him, and were not given the chance anyway, as a screaming fit to wake the dead started up on the other side of the room.

“Wuh di tyen, ah!” exclaimed Wash as he moved the flashlight and caught sight of the mess in the far corner.

Immediately everyone rushed to Kaylee, Simon, and the twins. Whilst Kaylee woke up groaning and clutching her arm, Simon was mostly focused on Nathaniel, whilst Persephone bawled her eyes out.

“Sephy? Natty?” said Kaylee as he eyes opened and she tried to focus on her family. “What...? Oh my God!” she gasped as she realised that whilst everyone else appeared to be awake, her precious baby boy was still sleeping - that could not be good.

Simon tried to calm his wife and daughter and check his son over at the same time, glad of the help when Wash moved Kaylee aside, promising her everything would be okay, and River hugged Sephy close, comforting her just the same.

“He’s just sleeping,” she whispered. “Will wake when he’s ready, Aunt River promises you this,” she said definitely.

“Uncle Mal...” said Jessy behind them, catching the attention of her father most especially. “So much blood,” she said, wincing as she saw the pictures in her head.

“Jao Gao!” yelled Jayne as he remembering the Captain was not there and that it was his name Jessy had been yelling when everything kicked off. “Wash!” he snapped. “Whatever’s wrong with this gorram ship, I figure it’s gonna help if you’re steerin’ her, and we gotta check on Mal,” he said definitely.

“Shi,” the pilot agreed, allowing Book to take over holding Kaylee as he ran off after Jayne, sans flashlight.

The emergency lights were on in the corridor at least, affording the men enough visibility to find their way to the bridge. The door was open, which was one less obstacle to deal with, but that didn’t make what Jayne and Wash were about to face any easier. The lockers on the right hand wall had fallen, blocking their route to the pilots chair where Mal was slumped over the controls. The Captain was eerily lit by the view beyond the Plexiglass screen and Wash’s eyes went almost impossibly wide as he realised why.

“Rung txe fwo txoo bao yo wuo muhm,” he gasped, unable to do anything but stare, finally catching the attention of Jayne who had been attempting to climb over the furniture in his way to reach their injured Captain.

“Damn it, Wash!” he exclaimed when he realised he was getting no help. “We gotta... What in the ruttin hell...?” he asked as he followed the pilot’s eyeline and gasped in shock.

“Meteors,” he said softly, hardly able to believe his eyes, honestly sure he’d never seen so many, and all headed right for them.


	12. Chapter 12

Being a doctor onboard a ship like Serenity was never an easy task but Simon Tam was finding it perhaps the hardest it had even been right now. Not only did he have an unconscious Captain on his exam table with a clear and gushing head wound and untold other injuries, he also worked with his own five year old son slipping in and out of reality right there in the next bed. As if this weren’t stressful enough, he knew the rest of the crew all ought to be checked over for fear of internal injuries and the like after their being tossed around the galley like rag dolls. All this he must cope with, whilst Wash attempted to pilot his way through a meteor shower that threw the ship in all directions.

It was clear now that the impact of one of the larger lumps of rock had caused Serenity’s earthquake-like reaction. Chances were good that either the meteor came at the ship from such an angle that Mal didn’t see it, or he did but had not even a split second to react. Either way, the little Firefly had taken a battering and was still doing so on occasion, albeit Wash was now ensuring Serenity avoided most of the larger projectiles.

The instability of their situation worried everybody, not least because with Mal out cold there was no-one in particular to take charge here. The crew attempted to organise themselves as best they could. Zoe needed to be with Wash right now, and took their daughter with her to the bridge. Her little warrior put on a brave face, but Alyssa still watched her Daddy work his magic from behind shaking hands, genuinely petrified of what might become of them all.

Jayne needed to be doing something, and so had offered to help out Kaylee in the engine room. They needed to get the power back in all the rooms that had lost it. Doc in particular needed light and such to work and a few encouraging woods about saving her son as well as her Captain soon had little Kaylee doin’ what she did best.

She had allowed Book to watch over Persephone, since the little girl refused to leave her twin brother, and stood rooted to the spot outside the med bay window. She could not stir until Nathaniel awoke. They were two but also one, she felt his pain somehow and understood he needed her close by, even without the Reader abilities of her Aunt and Cousin who stayed close too.

“You’re praying,” River’s voice sounded oddly loud in the silence though it was usually barely a whisper amongst the general noise of the ship.

“Yes.” Shepherd Book nodded into his answer, as River came to stand beside him and Jessy picked up Persephone’s hand, holding on tight. “I don’t think the Captain would much care for it.” Book sighed. “But it’s all I can do right now.”

River heard his words though she was barely listening, her eyes focused through the window as she watched her brother do his work. She had great faith in Simon, and in the strength of those in her family of crew. Things would turn out well, but as was almost always true aboard Serenity, there would be considerable bumps along the journey to some peace and calm.

“They will wake,” she said suddenly, her hands on her daughters shoulders as the pair watched through the window still.

“Natty first.” Jessy nodded, looking to Persephone. “Not long now, Sephy,” she promised.

Book’s eyes shifted between the two little girls and then back to River, a slight frown on his face as he spoke.

“And then Mal?” he checked, sure the Readers had said both the injured would survive and yet a little worried that the Captain’s fate seemed less certain than little Nathaniel’s own.

“Signals are fuzzy,” said River then, tilting her head slightly as she concentrated, her brow furrowing as if she was thinking so hard it hurt, or perhaps she was just seeing something that pained her. “The dark road winds too much, far too much,” she said backing up a step from the window but not daring to move any further as the floor rocked beneath her feet, the whole ship bearing the brunt of another meteor strike.

On the bridge, Wash fought to hold the Serenity steady, not an easy task as he must also try his best to steer between the larger of the meteors that flew past every minute.

“When does this end?” asked Zoe, partly to her husband but more so to herself as she held her daughter tightly to her, willing this to be over soon. “Just can’t believe we didn’t see it comin’.”

“Daddy!” Alyssa suddenly screamed as in the time it took for Wash to spare his wife and child a momentary glance, another large rock had come careering towards them from the far right, out of view until the last moment.

“Wuh di tyen, ah!” exclaimed the pilot as he dropped down and out of the way of the projectile that could very well have killed them all. “Been otherwise occupied, and these showers can come out nowhere,” he said breathlessly, this time keeping his eyes fixed on the rock-smattered black before him, even as he spoke to his best girls.

Zoe rocked Alyssa in her lap and kissed the top of her head. This was no way to die, not that she had ideas about going anywhere soon anyhow. When the time came, she wouldn’t mind so much going down fighting, protectin’ those she loved and all. This was torturous, unable to do anything to help but sit at her husband’s side and will him to have strength and skill enough to see them through.

Poor Zoe, she was built for war and fightin’, hated sittin’ on her pigu and waitin’ for others to do the job for her. She was no use to Mal right now, only Simon stood any chance of helping him, and that made the Captain’s second more agitated than anything else. Mal was too young too die, too strong, too important to every member of this crew that had so easily become a family. She didn’t know for sure why Inara had bolted, but Zoe never for a minute thought the Companion didn’t love her man. She would be back, or they would find her, one way or the other, and a reunion was on the cards, she was sure of it. She didn’t need no Reader skills like River or her young ‘uns had, she just knew. T’would be no good ‘Nara deciding to come home or them running across her somewhere if’n Mal didn’t see the day out.

Though she’d never tell a soul what she was doing, Zoe closed her eyes then and silently prayed, to a God she wasn’t even sure was there. She wanted to believe, now more than ever, as her Captain lie motionless in the Medical Bay and her husband fought valiantly to keep them in the air. A moment later when she opened her eyes once again, she saw lights shining brightly in the corridor. A sign? Maybe, but definitely proof that Kaylee and Jayne had done good works at getting things fixed up in the engine room. It was one good thing amongst a lot of bad, now they just needed a miracle for Mal and little Natty. These thoughts were shared by those waiting outside the med room door.

Jayne moved in behind his wife and daughter, wrapping his arms around them, partly to give comfort to them but at the same time just being glad they was here. He had lost a son to the ‘verse, maybe to be found, he hoped at least, but he thanked whatever powers ruled this gorram existence that he still had this much of his family left. River leaned back into her husband’s embrace, as glad of his presence as she had ever been in her life, not least as she was forced to watch Kaylee cry for her baby who had yet to wake, and the Captain she too saw as a father lying motionless and pale on the other bed.

“I’ve patched up the wound,” said Simon softly as his wife stared blankly at both the injured parties, “it’s all about time now,” he said, with a tired sigh, wondering how he was still coping with this.

“My baby,” said Kaylee, unable to form any more words as she collapsed into her husbands arms in a fit of sobbing and wailing.

She had held it together pretty well when she had a job to do. Now Serenity was fixed as best she could manage, and all that was left was to worry for the health of her baby boy.

“Ssh, bao bei,” said Simon, holding Kaylee tight and rubbing her back. “It’s not as bad as it seems,” he promised her. “I can’t find anything wrong. He bumped his head a little but-”

“Why ain’t he wakin’ then?” she asked desperately, as the rest of the crew peered in through the window, feeling their hearts were being torn apart by proxy, as Kaylee reached out a hand to her son’s head. “Please, Natty,” she urged him. “Please wake up.”

It had to be some kind of miracle, or perhaps this was all he’d needed from the start. In the peace and quiet, with his mother’s hand laid on his aching head, something in Nathaniel stirred, his eyes fluttered open and he moaned a little as he came around.

“Mommy?” he asked wearily. “Daddy?”

“Oh, sweetie,” said Kaylee as she leant down to hug him, careful still not to cause him any more damage than he might already have suffered.

“You gave us quite a scare, son,” said Simon with a smile, even as tears came to his eyes, “but you’re going to be just fine.”

Persephone came bolting into the room to see her brother, a bright smile in place of the tearful look she had been wearing up to now. Jayne, River and Jessy followed, with Book right behind them, hovering in the doorway.

“How’s Mal doin’?” asked the merc, looking as close to worried as he ever did.

Simon turned to answer but never got the chance as his sister butted in as she was so often want to do.

“So dark,” she reiterated words she had said not long before. “No light to find, the bug is named but forgets to shine,” she said, moving away from her husband to stand at the foot of Mal’s bed, staring as he breathed shallowly, showing no other movement at all. “Only way out is flight, and he doesn’t know... She spreads her gossamer wings for goodness this time.”

“Bao bei,” said Jayne carefully laying a hand on her shoulder, “ain’t got no time for riddles right now,” he told her. “What in the gorram verse we gotta do to keep him from dyin’?” he asked her straight, knowing that what she saw inside her head often come to more use than even her brother’s doctorin’ skills at times.

“Give him something to live for,” she said seriously, looking up into her dear husband’s eyes, making her meaning very clear. “Find her,” she said definitely, “before it’s too late.”

In that moment, the ship rocked with another blow almost knocking everyone off their feet. Before anything else could be done to save Mal, they had to hope they could save themselves, and make it through this meteor shower. The longer it went on, the less likely it seemed.

* * *

Inara landed smoothly at the Eavesdown Docks on Persephone. This place had become a second home over the years, for the whole crew of Serenity. Mal always insisted they should not see land as anything but a place to visit, but no one person amongst the crew ever minded much when they had to dock in this familiar spot.

The Companion sighed, even finding a smile curved her lips as she looked out at the sight of the planet before her. This was where Serenity had been headed the day she left, and if her timing was right the ship she called home might just arrive before long. She would take her chances, after all, letting them know where she was had its problems. The last thing her crew of family needed was for too many people to realise their position, what or who they were, and more importantly what cargo they were carrying.

From fugitives still at large, to the boxes of loot stored in the cargo bay, the less attention drawn to the little Firefly the better Inara would like it. Better to stumble upon them here on Persephone than pass too many messages that could be intercepted, or so she thought.

Of course Inara was unaware of the peril the crew of Serenity were currently in. She was equally unaware that on the other side of the planet, someone she knew very well was landing a shuttle that from the outside matched that which she called home.

Daniel Cobb landed smoothly on Persephone, locked down the controls and moved back into the shuttle to check on Abylene. She had been pretty shaken up by the truth he had to tell her, and yet somehow she seemed so much calmer since then. Perhaps knowing her real origins was better for her in the long run. Sure, it was scary as hell to think your whole life was a lie, Danny didn’t doubt that a second, but at least now she understood a lot of stuff that made no sense before.

“How you doin?” he asked, coming to sit down beside her on the bed.

“Better.” She nodded, sniffing a little from too long crying before. “Been thinkin’ a lot. I figure, ain’t much use cryin’ no more,” she said, looking his way. “Gained more’n I lost, didn’t I?” she said at which he smiled, putting an arm around her to pull her closer.

“Most amazing girl I ever met, Lena,” he told her, as they shared a brief kiss.

“You bet ya ass I am,” she joked a moment later, though her smile was watery at best, she was trying, and that was all Danny could hope for right now. “We land someplace?” she asked then, brain catching up with the situation at hand as she peered around Danny and out into the world.

“Persephone,” he replied with a nod, standing up when she did and moving closer to the glass so they were both looking out over the planet he called his second home, though Uncle Mal would have his hide if he knew he thought of any land that way.

It was strange to be here without them, not least when one of his little cousins was named after the planet. If not for this place, Danny might not have been a member of the Serenity crew, since his Ma and Uncle Simon would never have boarded the Firefly if they hadn’t been here on this planet when it landed.

“If folks kmow you so well here...” said Lena with an expression that quickly lost its shaky joy, replaced too fast with worry.

“We can’t stay long,” he agreed, “but I gotta refuel and such, else we won’t get nowhere else,” he explained. “Left Hecate in an awful big hurry.”

Lena nodded that she understood, her eyes going back to the view before her, drinking in a whole new world. She had never seen a planet like this. Though she knew the truth of her existence now, that only gave her frightening recollections of an Alliance facility she would sooner forget just as fast. The only land she knew was Hecate, the moon she had called home from the day she landed on it to now. Her Ma, the woman she called Ma, had took her in when her real folks couldn’t be found, a friend of her real mother perhaps, but on that Lena was still fuzzy. She didn’t have the mind-reading abilities that Danny seemed to, so obviously her folks wasn’t built that way. Whoever they were, Lena didn’t care right now. She had Danny and a new life she was starting with him now. Concentrating on that proved to be a lot less scary than everything else.


	13. Chapter 13

“Wash, you gotta come away from there,” his wife advised from the doorway to the bridge.

It was a couple of hours at least since they cleared the meteor shower and got out into the clear black they was used to. There had been not a bump nor a jolt in all that time, the danger well and truly over, and yet Serenity’s pilot was determined not to leave his post yet.

“Just a while longer,” he told her. “Just gotta make sure we’re okay,” he said, eyes never shifting, head not turning even an inch.

Zoe sighed and came further onto the bridge, laying a hand on her husband’s shoulder.

“Weren’t your fault, honey,” she told him, though she was sure he already knew it. “Ain’t nothin’ else to be done 'til we can get to Persephone and get Serenity patched up. Meantime, you’ve got to get some rest, Wash.”

He didn’t say a word for a long moment, didn’t even flinch, and Zoe honestly wondered if he’d heard a thing she said. He was not himself, no laughter or jokes like he usually would. She knew they’d been through a hell of a big deal here today, but she never thought she’d see Wash as shaken as this, not a second time, not since Miranda and the close call they’d had there.

“You think we’re getting too old for all this?” he asked seriously, though he still didn’t avert his gaze from the view beyond the window. “I mean the whole ‘keep flying’ thing? You think maybe we need to stop trying so hard, just settle somewhere?”

“Wash,” she said his name so sharply she actually got his attention at last, a look of surprise passing over his face as he realised what she had achieved. “I know what happened was bad,” she said, her hand at his chin preventing him from turning away 'til she was done talking. “But it was not your fault, and you do not seriously think we should give up our whole life and family because of it,” she said, knowing she would be every kind of shocked if he were.

He seemed like such a joker, a clown of some kind, but Zoe knew better. In a crisis, her man always came through, always found his calm. He had been so concentrated and definite when flying them through the meteors, but now it was over it was like he’d gotten lost somehow. Wash had a serious side and she was glad of it sometimes, but right now she’d given anything to have him crack one of his dumb jokes at her. Honest to God, he was startin’ to scare her just a little bit.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly, shaking his head. “I just... Zoe, there’s a chance Mal isn’t going to come through this time, and if I’d just been paying more attention-”

“No,” she interrupted him, unable to stand hearing any more as she put her hands either side of his face and leant in close to him until all they saw was each other. “Wash, you couldn’t have done anything. Mal was sat right here and he didn’t know what was comin’ 'til it was come,” she told him. “We’re gonna come through this, all of us, like we always do, and we’re gonna find Inara and Danny and everything is gonna work out,” she said, glad when he put his arms around her and pulled her down into his lap, holding her close.

Without each other, all this would be so much harder to bear, as it was Wash wasn’t sure how to deal. She could tell him it wasn’t his fault and he’d believe her because she was Zoe and she and Alyssa meant everything in the world to him. Still, there was a twinge of guilt in the pilot’s soul, and genuine fear that he would lose his Captain, his friend, his brother, before long.

“How’s ‘Lyssa?” he asked, still holding Zoe close, glad of the comfort her embrace brought him.

“She’s okay.” His wife nodded as she moved to look at him. “She wanted to stay with the girls, keeping Natty company.”

“We got us some miracle kids on this boat.” He sighed. “Almost as tough as their parents, and with Natty and Sephy maybe tougher. I mean, the doc has learnt a lot but, not exactly a street fightin’ man.” He smiled.

Zoe didn’t mind so much he was taking a bit of a pot-shot at Simon, he meant no harm by it and at least her husband was smiling again, it was all she wanted in that moment. Dropping her lips onto his, they shared a passionate kiss that went on a while, to the point where Zoe was just about to suggest moving along to their bunk for that rest she’d been talking about, ‘ceptin she never got the chance to say it.

A crackling started up on the dash and in one swift movement she was off Wash’s lap, and his hands were at the controls. On edge as he was about missing anything important after earlier events, neither husband nor wife suspected they were in danger right now. The noise they heard was from someone trying to send them a wave, hopin’ to get message to ‘em, and with a little luck it’d be good news for a change.

“Mal, that you, boy?” asked the moustached man on the screen as he crackled into view.

“Er, no, sir,” said Wash, looking a little bemused a moment until Zoe leaned over his shoulder, smiling widely.

“As I live and try not to breathe, if it ain’t that old sasquatch we call Monty,” she joked, making the older man chuckle the minute he realised who he was talkin’ to.

“I’ll be the son of a whore.” He laughed long and loud. “How you doin’, Zoe?”

“Could be better,” she admitted, smile slippin’ a little. “Got ourselves caught up in a little meteor storm, caught some damage, but nothin’ we can’t fix,” she lied some, since the ship was fixable but Mal wasn’t necessarily so. “Weren’t expectin’ a call from you,” she admitted, wondering what his business might be with them, hoping it was something good.

“I got your message ‘bout your runaway folk,” he explained scratching his bearded chin. “Can’t say as I seen nothin’ of Inara, but mighta heard somethin’ about Danny,” he admitted. “Yep, some guys I did some business with making a whole mess of a fuss about a boy they seen on Hecate, matches the kids description just right,” he explained, as Wash and Zoe shared a look.

“We’re already headed for Persephone, we might actually catch them,” he said in a low voice as he spun the pilot’s chair to the side, checking maps and crunching numbers on another screen as Zoe continued her conversation with Monty.

“You know if he’s still there?” she asked, knowing what it would mean to River and Jayne to know they might even be close to tracking down their son.

“Ain’t right certain, but I doubt it,” admitted the old soldier. “Seems he done left with one of the teenaged girls from town, flew off into the black just yesterday without a word, so they say.”

“Why would Danny run away with a teenage girl?” asked Wash in a whisper at which Zoe rolled her eyes.

“Because he’s a teenage boy, dear,” his wife told him quickly, before returning back to Monty on the screen. “Thanks for your help, Monty, we appreciate it.”

“Ain’t no trouble to me, Zoe,” he assured her. “I just hope you find the boy, and that this young woman he’s done taken off with don’t do him no harm,” he said with a look. “Women folk can be a darn sight more trouble than they’re ever worth!” he said definitely, apparently forgetting he was talking to a woman right now, but then Zoe was used to that, given the way she chose to live and act so very much like a soldier.

The conversation over, Monty’s face soon crackled away off the screen, leaving Zoe and Wash once again alone, but barely for a second as Alyssa appeared in the doorway.

“Ma?” she said as she came onto the bridge. “Was you talking to someone who can help Uncle Mal?” she checked.

“No, sweetheart,” said her mother carefully as she came to crouch before her child. “Baby, now I need you to do something for me,” she told her, pushing some hair that had fallen from her ponytail out of the girl’s face. “Go run and find your Uncle Jayne and Aunt River, and tell them we reckon we got word about Danny.”

Alyssa’s face broke into a wide smile at the news her eldest cousin may have been found. She was so thrilled to know her family stood some chance of soon being complete again, she threw her arms around her mother’s neck real tight, then belted off down the corridor as fast as her little legs would carry her.

“I coulda used the comm to call ‘em,” said Wash thoughtfully just as soon as their daughter was gone.

“I know.” Zoe nodded as she got to her feet. “But I wanted to see her smile too.”

* * *

“You okay?” Danny asked Abylene as they walked away from the shuttle and into town on Persephone.

She looked a might nervous, and her hand was shaking inside of his. He couldn’t blame her really, after the shock she’d had today, the news he’d had to tell her about her own life and being. Then there was the fact she was away from her home for the first time she recalled clear.

“Sure, I’m shiny,” she told him with a slight nod, her eyes flitting around at all the people, the general hustle and bustle of the place. “We’re safe here, right?” she checked.

“Ain’t so certain o’ that,” said Danny with a sigh. “Like I told ya, got folks here know me, so I better not get spotted by ‘em,” he explained, “but they wouldn’t do us no harm. ‘Sides Serenity should be been and gone from here a couple o’ days back, prob’ly far away by now.”

Abylene still didn’t get that part, the whole thing where Danny had run away from his folks. Sure, she got what it was to be stuck in one place your whole life, but she was always planetside with nowhere to go. He lived on a ship, seeing far off worlds and all, havin’ adventures at every turn. He had a Ma and Pa, a sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins aplenty who all loved him and wanted him around. She’d be jealous if’n she had it in her to be, but all Abylene could really feel was relief right now at having found Danny at all.

If he hadn’t’ve bolted from home, they would’nt’ve come to be here together, she wouldn’t’ve figured out the truth of who she really was, and she wouldn’t know what it felt like to be this comfortable and at home with another person.

“Now we got the shuttle refuelled, all that’s left is food and such,” he was explaining, though Abylene barely heard. “Lena, you with me?” he asked, stopping in the middle of the marketplace and turning to face her vacant expression.

“Yeah, sure,” she agreed, though she looked far from it right now. “I just... I dunno how to tell ya this but I got the weirdest feeling like... I dunno rightly what it is but somethin’s tellin’ me we’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, Danny,” she explained. “Wish I knew how to tell ya it better but...” She shook her head, feeling entirely at a loss.

Danny reached for her mind with his own, wondering if there might be more in her head that she could not access herself. She knew what he was doing as he faced her straight and looked into her eyes. It was as if she could feel his mind connecting with her own, and though it wasn’t a bad feeling at all, she knew he wouldn’t find anything.

There was no actual thought or memory connected to this, it was literally a feeling, like the reaction a cat might have, all the hair on the back of her neck standing on end and making her feel shaky and strange. She’d had this before but never known what it meant, now Lena wondered if it had something to do with her creation.

Danny had explained to her that he had been borne of a solider-like father, and a mother with both Reader and fighting abilities. He was to be a warrior, and Lena could only assume she had been manufactured similarly. She did not have Reader skills like Danny’s own, of that she was certain, but perhaps this was part of her creation, this feeling for danger.

“You want to head back?” he asked her, his hand on her arm.

“No,” she said shakily. “I just...” before she had a chance to make a suggestion to walk a different direction a while, she realised it was too late.

An overwhelming feeling of fear and panic swept over her, almost taking her breath away, though she could not be entirely certain why. Danny started to figure it out as he heard an argument breaking out to his left and turned quickly to see what was going on.

A much older couple in fancy clothes, with luggage enough to fill his shuttle and then some, were stood opposite what looked to be the Captain of a classy looking boat. They was arguing abut something, seemed maybe it was money, though Danny couldn’t understand why such rich folks would quibble over a price at all.

“Please, just pay the man, Gabriel,” the woman said desperately, grabbing at her husband’s arm, wishing he would come away before something awful happened, after all the Captain of the ship was holstering a fairly sizeable gun and the expression on his face suggested he was just itching to use it.

“No, Regan,” the man argued with his wife and suddenly Daniel Cobb felt very sick.

“Gao yang jong duh goo yang...” he said under his breath, so soft Abylene barely heard.

“Danny? Do you know those people?” she asked just as quiet.

“Those ain’t people,” he told her, though his eyes never left the couple of which he spoke. “They’re the monsters that near destroyed my Ma’s life,” he said angrily.


	14. Chapter 14

“They’re your grandparents?” gasped Abylene as he explained the situation to her. “And they did that to your Ma? Left her in that place?”

Daniel Cobb nodded grimly, his eyes still fixed on the elder couple not so far away. He woulda known them without them sayin’ each others names, known them from their auras, their blood, felt the connection he had to ‘em, though he wished to almighty God he did not.

The gun restin’ on Danny’s hip was singing long and loud at him. These weren’t people, they were animals, didn’t deserve to live after what they did. ‘Twas his Uncle Simon that had saved Ma best he could, not this pair of... Danny didn’t even have words for what they was and he weren’t about to try and think of ‘em as Abylene looked pale enough to pass out stood beside him.

“Lena?” he said worriedly as she closed her eyes a second and almost pitched forward into his arms. “What’s happenin’ to you?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I felt this before, never so strong though,” she told him. “S’like fire burnin’, red hot rage and... and it’s easin’ off now,” she said a moment later, breathing a damn sight easier as she and Danny walked a ways away from the elder Tams they had been spyin’ on.

They weren’t forgotten, wasn’t likely to be either. When it came to protectin’ them he cared about, this son was as protective as his father before him. Honest to goodness, Danny was certain if his Pa was here, there’d be a bullet in the brain-pan o’ both those people stood but a few feet away, amongst their fancy luggage and all. Couldn’t think even his Ma nor Uncle Simon could care ‘bout them by now. Still, he ignored the terrible urge to reach for his gun, and focused on Lena. She seemed to come over awful strange just as soon as the elder Tams got close, and again in a whole different way when he was explainin’ who they was.

It didn’t take long for Danny to put together what the problem was, as he put an arm around Lena and walked her around, fixin’ to head in to town a different way, far away from them that made him so mad. See, he could read people, like their minds and souls and all, that was a skill they wanted him to have, handed down from his Ma. As for Lena, well, she didn’t so much read as she felt things, feelings that weren’t her own flooding over her like crashing waves. She all but had a panic attack when they got near the Tams, almost boiled over with heat when Danny himself got so angry.

“You figured it out too.” He smiled as he looked across at her, the thought having sounded clear as a bell from her mind the moment he thought it.

“Only explanation.” She shrugged, apparently unfazed by the fact he had just read her mind as they walked along. “Gotta learn to control it, I guess, just like you do with your Readin’... Kinda freaky though, ain’t it?” she said with a slight frown, finding it strange to suddenly have such odd explanations of things in her life that had been ignored so many years, swept under the carpet as just one of them things.

“I guess the government figured they’d have use for your kinda readin’ as well as mine,” shrugged Danny as they walked towards the market place, mindful they was near the docks and could easy be spotted by someone who knew him. “Seek out the nervous one in a pack o’ criminals, or hunt out people who’s playin’ hide n’ seek.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Lena considered, “but I...” she stopped short, her eyes going wide as she realised all too late what was happening.

A shadow fell over her as she was grabbed from behind and dragged back by a man soon revealed to be a law man of some kind. Not a Fed, that was clear, but the local law, a deputy to whatever Sheriff was in office right now.

“What are you doin’? Get offa her!” yelled Danny, only to be taken a hold of by another of the group that now surrounded them.

He ought to have felt them coming, seemed awful strange neither of them had, but with so many people around and so much intensity between Danny and Lena, they were too concentrated on each other to think about what else was goin’ on 'til it was too late.

“Let go o’ me, you gorram ape!” Lena kicked and screamed, trying to get free of the clutches of the man that would take her away.

Seemed none of them was willin’ to tell either of the two what was happenin’ but it all become real clear as they was dragged up over the ridge and brought before a couple they coulda used not comin’ face to face with. Lena felt the heat of Danny’s anger flow over her as they were forced forward to face the Tams.

“Are these the two, sir?” asked the law man holding Danny.

Gabriel nodded slowly, approaching the two young people. His wife hovered at his side, looking a little less angry than her husband.

“They’re only children, Gabriel,” she advised him. “They probably didn’t mean any harm.”

“They were spying on us, Regan,” he told her harshly though his eyes never left the pair of scruffy looking teens. “Most likely had intentions of robbing us blind, leaving us for dead. For that they must be punished.”

“I wouldn’t take nothin’ from you if’n you offered it to me, you ung jeong jia ching jien soh!” Danny spat, so full of anger it was all Lena could do not to pass out from the intensity of the emotion she felt coming off him in waves like fire.

“Danny,” she groaned. “Please, don’t,” she urged him, and immediately he saw her pain, the way she was wavering in the guards grasp, he fought to keep his feelings in check.

“I want these people bound by law, Deputy,” said Gabriel Tam sharply. “They are clearly scavengers and intend to terrorise any person of substance they find on this planet,” he said with a hard stare at Danny.

The young man could hardly believe it, but he actually thought maybe this guy knew who he was. It seemed as if it ought to be impossible, and surely if he knew the truth of the matter he wouldn’t be having them arrested like this. Still, he couldn’t focus on that right now.

Danny had a gun and the skills to fight, but that didn’t mean this was easy to get out of. They had Lena and as yet he weren’t so sure she had what it took to fight back on her own. He needed to stay calm, needed to figure out a way to get them both outta this, without the pair of them ending up needin’ a medic.

* * *

The infirmary was quiet and still, so much so it made everyone uncomfortable, not just River who had always been skittish about entering the room. Simon was used to having battle-scarred crew members on his table, letting rip with the Chinese curses as he pulled out bullets, sewed up knife wounds, and such. That or he had the kids sat up on the edge of the bed, having grazes on their knees patched up, or splinters pulled out their fingers, all sniffing and wailing depending on who it was exactly.

This was different, and not a good kind of different. Simon hated that he had a person constantly in the infirmary and yet there was barely a sound. A lone monitor beeped to prove that Mal’s heart was still beating, the rise and fall of his chest showed there was breath in his body, and yet he was perfectly still in every other way. Unfortunately, there was nothing else that Dr Tam could do for his patient, except try to keep him comfortable and monitor his vitals in case of a change. The head wound Mal had suffered, the impact of slamming into the pilot’s console full force, it could have done untold damage to his brain, even snapped his neck. From what Simon could tell, he could be fine when he came round, but he could also be brain damaged in some way, there was just no way to be sure. He daren’t tell anyone the real truth, not even his wife. Kaylee was so strong in so many ways, but her heart was as fragile as a china doll when it came to those she loved. The news that Mal might never be the same again could destroy her, as well as the rest of the crew, no matter how tough they seemed.

“How’s he doin’, doc?” said Zoe from the doorway, and Simon forced a smile as he looked her way.

“I honestly don’t know,” he admitted tiredly. “His vitals are constant and strong but-”

“But?” the woman in charge in Mal’s absence was not going to stand for being fobbed off anymore.

When she had been here before it had been with Wash or Alyssa, or other crew members had been around. Now they were alone, the soldier and the doctor, and he had to tell her the truth, he just had to.

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “With the blow to the head he endured, there’s really no way to tell what damage might’ve been done until he wakes up.”

Zoe slowly nodded her head. She understood what Simon was telling her, it stabbed at her heart like a knife to think of how this might all end, but she could at least be prepared now. Soldiers didn’t cry, didn’t flinch, even as they watched their comrades fall row upon row. Mal was just one man, but he had been with her so long. The idea of him dying was too much to think on. As for the idea of him surviving but remaining in such a state...

“We’ll be touching down on Persephone in a couple of minutes,” she explained, business-like as ever when her eyes shifted from Mal’s prone form and met the doctor’s gaze. “Myself, River, and Jayne will head out, ask around about Danny since he was supposed to be on Hecate up until a couple o’ days ago,” she went on. “Wash is gonna meet the contact about the repairs we need doin’ to the ship, and Kaylee’ll need to help with that, so Book will be watching over the kids.”

“You don’t need me for anything?” asked Simon, with a slight frown.

“We surely do, doctor,” she said, emphasising his title instead of using his name as her eyes returned to the unconscious form of the Captain. “We surely do,” she repeated, silently asking Simon with her eyes alone to keep Mal alive as best he could, to heal him in anyway possible.

Serenity could go on without its Captain, but not one amongst the crew would want it too.

* * *

Inara thought she was safe enough contacting her mother ship now she was landed on Persephone. They had to be close by, and she really would rather not be randomly wandering the docks giving people entirely the wrong idea about her. She was known here by some, both people she would like to see and others she would not. Sending a wave to Serenity now seemed the safest option.

Unfortunately, it seemed the fates would conspire against her as the communicator refused to transmit and pushing buttons only led to the Companion picking up all kinds of signals she never intended to hear. Garbled voices talked by some other radio link, several more as she shifted frequency, picking up pieces of Captain’s orders from nearby ships and even the Sheriff’s deputies passing messages back and forth. It was this last signal that she got stuck on, not deliberately at first but a few words had her attention in a second and she turned up the volume listening intently.

“...two kids wanted. Boy kidnapped a girl right outta town on Hecate.”

“Yes, sir, we found the location of a shuttle, registered to a Firefly class ship.”

“Could be we solve two cases in one then. Got me a notice about a missing kid by the name o’ Daniel Cobb here...”

“Oh, go-se,” gasped Inara, not needing to hear any more.

She was on her feet in an instant, making to leave before realising immediately she needed a plan first. If Daniel had been arrested for kidnap, well, first of all she didn’t believe for a moment he had done such a thing. Still, she would need to know what she would say when she got to the Sheriff’s station if she was going to free him. Her Companion status ought to be of help, of course, but Inara was so taken aback by this turn events. She forced herself to take a deep breath and think calmly, a smile coming to her lips at the sudden realisation that dawned in her mind. If Daniel was on Persephone and Serenity ought to be close by, a reunion could not be far off, and thank the Lord for it.

* * *

Serenity touched down at the Eavesdown Docks, and almost immediately the ramp came down, allowing three of the crew to walked down to the ground. Jayne and Zoe disembarked immediately, he squinting against the Sun, eyes all over the place looking out for his boy, her all business as ever, checking her gun was properly strapped to her.

River did not move at first, just stood at the top of the Firefly’s ramp, looking out at the view of Persephone spread before her.

“Here we all are,” she said in all but a whisper. “Past, present, and future.”

Jayne realised in a moment that his wife was not by his side and looked back over his shoulder to see where she was. Her eyes stared unseeing at the world and it never failed to make him just a little nervous when she was so very quiet and still. She was a million times better than years before, more lucid and all, but there were always gonna be times when she disappeared from him, into her own mind. The worry of it never entirely went away.

“You okay, bao bei?” Jayne asked as he came to stand beside River, pushing stray hair from her face.

“Her past and future walk as ghosts on the goddess’ back,” she said too seriously, before turning her head to look at her husband “They are here.” She smiled then, bright as she ever had.

Her hand slid easy into his own and she began walking down the ramp then, encouraging him to come along with her. Seemed to him she had to mean Danny, and maybe even ‘Nara too. That was all the good news they could hope on right now. Seemed Mal weren’t gonna get no better without his crew bein’ intact, and if’n anyone could track down missin’ people it was Jayne, what he was brung onboard to do, amongst other things.

Course, as well as Jayne had learned to translate his wife’s apparently crazy ramblins and such, he didn’t always get the full story. Right now was one of them times, but he wouldn’t know it 'til later, since River hadn’t a mind to tell. She couldn’t if’n she wanted to, it was all far to complicated.


	15. Chapter 15

Daniel Cobb stood by the bars of the jail cell he’d been flung in, rattling the door as if he expected it to open. He had strength enough but even his Pa couldn’t’ve wrenched such a piece o’ metal work free. For a holding cell it was built pretty good, and it seemed they was stuck here at the Sheriff’s station 'til someone decided their fate. That was what had Danny really hurtin’, knowing he’d gotten Abylene dragged into his mess. So much for thinking he could survive on his own in the black, couldn’t keep himself safe nor her either for even a matter of days.

“This ain’t exactly how you planned your big adventure, is it?” He sighed, giving the bars one last kick before sinking down to the ground, his back against the wall that joined the next holding cell. “I’m sorry, Lena.”

“I’m not,” she told him, loud and clear from her place sat in a similar position on the other side of the same wall. “Danny, all I ever wanted was to get offa that piece of crap moon and see the ‘verse some,” she explained. “'Til I met you, I never thought it’d happen. Wherever we end up, at least I got you, got to meet ya an’ know the truth about me,” she smiled, in spite of the mess they were in right now. “Seems to me that’s better than sittin’ home wonderin’ what I was missing. Felt more lost there than I ever could out in the black with you.”

Danny closed his eyes as her voice washed over him. She was the sweetest yet most courageous young woman he ever did know. Hell, he wanted to kiss her right now, but the Sheriff’s men had seen to it that they couldn’t even get a look at each other the way they was locked in these cells. Right now they wasn’t even sure what crime they was bein’ held for, only that the old Tam couple had taken offence to them comin’ anywhere near.

Knowing that too many strong emotions would do Lena no good right now, sending her own feelings into a whirl, Danny tried to remain calm. Still, made his blood wanna boil when he thought too much on how they landed up here in the Sheriff’s station. Damn Alliance lovin’ hwun dahns! And to think he had to live with the knowledge his own grandparents had got him arrested like this. Chances were good they had not an ounce of an idea who he was. If they did, then hell if they weren’t even worse people than Danny thought in the first place...

“No, Sheriff, that will not do!” said a voice that Daniel Cobb recognised all too well, his eyes shooting open the moment it reached his ears.

Maybe if he hadn’t been concentrating so hard on keeping his emotions in check he would have felt the presence of her and known she was headed here, but his mind had been otherwhere 'til she was already come.

“Lena!” he said sharply, his voice quiet anyhow as he strained his neck to see his own Aunt ‘Nara out in the office, talking to the Sheriff and his men.

“You know her?” Abylene checked as she strained her ears to hear more of the conversation in the next room. “She your ma?” she checked.

“No, ‘Nara’s one of my Aunts,” he said with a grin. “Means my folks can’t be far off.”

It stunned Danny just a little to realise how thrilled he was to know he was about to be dragged home. Sure as the worlds turned he had wanted to run for the hills just a few days before. Now his Pa’s yellin’ and his Ma’s stern looks would be a pleasure to see. He hadn’t known it 'til now, 'til the possibility was this close, that home was all he really wanted; it appealed so much.

“Daniel,” said Inara with a bright smile that turned into a stern look just as soon as the Sheriff caught up to her, and he knew why.

Pleased as she was to have tracked him down, Aunt ‘Nara couldn’t look that way. She had to seem pissed he got himself thrown in jail, else this weren’t ever gonna work. He didn’t have to read minds to know it, though when her eyes locked on his, practically urging him on to see what lie inside her head, Danny let himself receive what she was tryin’ to send.

“Can’t rightly just hand him over to ya, ma’am, as much as I’d like to,” said the Sheriff, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other, messin’ with his hat as if straightening the thing would make him any more appealing to a woman like Inara Serra.

“Sheriff, please,” she urged him, turning her eyes upon him. “My poor nephew is no criminal, he would no sooner harm another person than I would,” she said, all the innocence of the ‘verse shinin’ in her eyes and making Danny smile.

She weren’t near so sweet as she made out, he knew that. Pulled a few guns in her time, fired a fair few shots be they bullets or arrows. She knew her craft as a Companion, that was for sure, but she was Uncle Mal’s secret weapon just the same, came good in a fire fight when she was needed.

“Well, Lord knows, I don’t wanna be inconveniencin’ a lady like yourself...” said the law man, still looking unsure, and Danny didn’t hardly know where to look as Aunt ‘Nara leaned in closer to the old guy.

“Come now, Sheriff.” She smiled, fingers creeping all slow and careful to the bunch o’ keys dangling on his belt. “I’m certain some arrangement might be made where by we all win,” she practically whispered in his ear as she clasp the bunch of keys and unclipped them with ease, without the stupid oaf even payin’ it no mind.

Lena’s eyes were wide as dinner plates as she watched the scene evolve before her. A minute later and the Sheriff was promising to do all he could to get the pair of them off the hook. Seems Inara weren’t so sure that would happen, twas obviously why she stole them keys, tossing them back into Danny’s waiting hands afore linking her arm through the Sheriff’s own and going back to the front desk with him to look at paperwork apparently.

Danny had his cell unlocked in seconds, bein’ quiet as a church mouse about it. He let the door stay open, creepin’ over to the next cell and letting Lena out next. He shushed her the moment she seemed she might speak, taking hold of her hand in his and preparing to make a run for it anyway they could without being seen.

Didn’t take much for the pair to find a back door and make their escape. Danny had no worries that Inara would be just fine. Most like she’d make up some excuse, decide in her wisdom that maybe them young ‘uns could use to sit a spell in jail and think on what they done wrong. She’d leave, get back to Serenity and be away afore the law men ever knew their captives was gone.

That’s what Danny figured, but he was wrong. For one thing, he hadn’t an idea that ‘Nara weren’t with the rest of the crew in the first place. Second, he hadn’t accounted for the Tams bein’ there when they got around to the front of the building, hell-bent on seein’ justice done or some such. Poor Danny and Lena barrelled straight into the pair as a matter of fact, not fifty feet from the Sheriff’s station.

“Where do you think you’re going?” asked Gabriel Tam, as he shoved Danny away from him, glaring like he had the moral high ground - the boy weren’t ever gonna stand for that.

“Far away from the likes o’ you,” he said definitely, gripping tight on Lena’s hand as she fought to deal with the high emotion exploding all around her. “I know who you is, and I ain’t lettin’ you condemn us like you did my ma!” he yelled, not thinkin’ much on what he was saying or where or to whom.

Could be this all ended worse than it started, but Daniel Cobb was done with all this. These folks needed tellin’, needed to know what they did wrong. Hell, they oughta pay for it just as bad as them Alliance folks what cut into his Ma’s brain, them what built people like himself and Lena in labs and all.

“What is he talking about, Gabriel?” Regan asked with a frown.

“The boy is clearly deluded,” he told his wife with a shake of his head. “We have no idea who your mother is, boy.”

“Go-se!” yelled Danny. “You know her, you made her, and you condemned her!” he said, tears coming to his eyes as he raved like a crazy person, but Lena wasn’t afraid.

She felt the anger coming off him like flames burning at her skin, but she would not walk away, would not ask him to stop. She knew he had to do this, and just gripped onto his hand tighter, praying for this to be over soon without any harm coming to her man.

“My ma’s name is River,” he told them, seeing both Gabriel and Regan react with shock. “River Tam 'til she married my Pa.”

“Impossible,” Gabriel spat, though his wife, who now clung to his side, looked as if she believed the boy somehow. “Both our children are dead,” he said, making the poor woman wince, Danny saw.

She was hurting, in so much pain it was almost stronger than Daniel’s anger, leaving Lena with such a pounding in her head she hardly knew how to stand. She managed it somehow, though her weight was leaning mostly on Danny now. Seemed he noticed, his arm going around her waist and keeping her close, even as he continued to stare down the barrel of his recently pulled gun.

“Don’t you dare!” he yelled with anger. “Don’t you dare deny her! She is your daughter!”

“You’re too old to be her son,” said Regan, openly crying into her words, and that at least Danny couldn’t argue with.

He knew well and good how he came to be, how his Ma weren’t old enough to o’ given him birth in no natural way. Still didn’t change the fact he was her son just as much as he was his Pa’s boy, and the lies about her and Uncle Simon bein’ dead just made Danny’s blood boil in his veins.

“You don’t know anythin’!” he yelled too loud, as the Sheriff and his men came runnin’, training more’n one piece on the boy that had the Tam elders on the business end of his own gun.

“Danny,” said Lena near his ear, a whimper more than a word in the middle of too much emotion flyin’ wholesale through her head - she couldn’t take much more of this and stay conscious.

Caught between needin’ to defend himself, take care of her, and deal with the mixed up feelings takin’ him over, Daniel Cobb didn’t much know which way to turn. Felt like he was losin’ his mind as he tried to keep a hold of the gun he had aimed, and hold Lena close to him with his free arm.

“’S gonna be okay,” he promised her, determined he was gonna keep her safe if’n nothing else worked out here.

“I wouldn’t trust a word that comes out of his mouth, Sheriff,” Gabriel Tam was telling the law man by now. “He spins falsehoods, speaking of our dear children who are long dead,” he said with determination as Regan sobbed into his shoulder.

“Guess again,” said a voice behind them and suddenly all eyes were on the figures of three gun-toting hero-types that clearly meant business. “You speakin’ lies about my wife?” asked Jayne, tippin’ his head a little to the left where River was stood, tall and proud, Zoe flankin’ him the other side and ready for whatever was thrown at ‘em.

To their credit, Gabriel and Regan looked mighty stunned to see their only daughter starin’ them down in such a fashion. She looked entirely unimpressed to see the folks that had abandoned her to an Alliance hell, of course.

“Hello, parents,” she said simply and without emotion. “See you’ve met the next generation. Surprise.”

* * *

Dr Simon Tam was always a doctor first and everything else second. It had to be that way or he would never survive this life he built for himself on Serenity. He had to focus on making the sick and injured better from the perspective of his job, and detach all emotion from it, but it never came easy.

Right now he had the Captain on his table, still unconscious and unlikely to be anything else right now. If and when the man did come around, there was no telling what damage might’ve been done. The scans looked good, all read-outs were positive, but not everything could be so easily spotted on the charts and instruments that Simon had access too. There was every chance he was missing something, and that actually scared him a lot.

Aboard such a boat as Serenity there was little or no room for fear. The crew all had to be strong to survive, for themselves and each other, and more than that the children. There was no chance for sentimentality most of the time, and Simon struggled the same as everybody else with that now and then. Today, there was a chance they were going to lose their Captain, a great man who played father, brother, uncle to so many, and leader to all. Without him, either in body or mind, Simon didn’t like to think what might happen.

On two occasions already, it had seemed Mal might wake. He had come close to it when members of his crew were talking to him. Once it was Kaylee, telling her Captain how much she loved him, and his hand had squeezed hers just a tiny bit, so she said. Her husband half-wondered if it were wishful thinking, but later, when Zoe was reminding Mal of their old war stories, telling him he had this one more fight to win, she had sworn she saw his eyes flicker, just a second but it was there. The readings matched, there had been a change at the very same moment, and it gave Simon a little hope, but only a little.

“Come on, Mal,” he said as he turned to look at the prone form of his Captain. “If anyone is going to put this family back together...” He sighed, unable to finish what he was saying as his attention was taken by the clatter of tiny feet in big boots clattering down the stairway.

Jessy often if not always looked like her mother, but in this very moment as she came flying into the Infirmary, Simon saw the worst shades of River in her face. She looked all but crazed, eyes flitting around madly, tears streaking down her little cheeks as she raved.

“No, no, no!” she yelled, dodging Simon when he attempted to get a hold of her, running to Mal’s side and shaking at him with all the strength her little body possessed. “Gotta wake! Need you, everybody, they’re all there, everybody!!” she told him in a total state of panic apparently. “Need the Captain, the leader, or it’ll all be wrong, all of it. Too many lines, all getting crossed. The cats away, the mice will die!” She sobbed uncontrollably as she rocked her whole weight into the effort of shaking Mal’s arm.

“Jessamine, stop!” Simon urged her but it could not be done, her grip on her Uncle Mal’s arm was ridiculously strong and the doctor could not prise her fingers away.

As it turned out he didn’t need to. In a moment that Dr Tam would only ever be able to describe as a miracle, Mal’s hand was suddenly on top of both Jessy’s own. He wouldn’t have believed his own eyes were it not for Shepherd Book having arrived with the other children in tow and seen just exactly what the Captain did. Sure enough, his eyes opened, gradual like, but opened all the same. It took a few moments for him to register where he was as the Infirmary came slowly into focus, but his ears worked just fine.

“All here, all need you,” Jessy begged him to understand. “You feel it. Aunt ‘Nara, you know!” she realised with a long overdue smile as Mal, swallowing hard and looking shaky as anything, slowly sat up on the bed.

“Wuh de ma!” Shepherd Book gasped in shock.

“Where’s the rest o’ my crew?” asked the Captain plainly.

“Er, they’re in town...” Simon tried to explain through the shock and awe. “We’re on Persephone, but I don’t...”

He hadn’t a chance to say anymore, the determination in Mal’s eyes told him he didn’t need to. Somehow he seemed to know his family was in trouble, and everyone knew Malcolm Reynolds didn’t stand for that.


	16. Chapter 16

“River.” The sight of her daughter was far too much for Regan Tam to take and she passed out right onto the dusty ground.

In a moment, her husband was crouched at her side, alongside one of the Sheriff’s men who hurried to help the fallen woman. Still Gabriel Tam’s eyes barely left River’s gaze. He knew it was her, though she was older and dressed in such a fashion as he’d never seen. Far from the sweet innocent young girl he had sent to the Academy what felt like a lifetime ago, it would appear that somehow she was now wife and mother, with a gun in her hand and a hundred tales of woe written in her eyes.

“Danny, please,” said Inara in soft tones as she reached a hand to his shoulder. “Please put down the gun, sweetheart,” she urged him, knowing it was doing no good.

The fierce anger in him gave way to relief at the sight of his folks and compassion for the young woman he held against him still. He knew Aunt ‘Nara was right and immediately holstered his gun.

“This here is a family matter,” Jayne drawled, turning a dangerous eye on the Sheriff and his deputies. “Ain’t no business o’ no authorities.”

“This girl your family?” the law man asked, tipping his head towards Lena as Danny checked she was okay and brought her comfort as best he could. “’Cause I got reports she been kidnapped by this boy offa Hecate-”

“Ain’t even so!” the younger Cobb complained. “Lena and me left Hecate sure enough, but ‘cause we wanted to.”

“It’s true,” the young woman agreed, nodding her head carefully so as not to make the pounding within it worse. “I wanted to leave with him, and I’m near as dammit eighteen, you can’t do nothin’ about it!” she told the Sheriff fiercely, her strength coming back bit by bit as emotions calmed some all around her.

Danny wasn’t even wondering yet on what his folks might be thinkin’ about him taking Abylene outta Hecate like he had. There was more important things to be dealin’ with right now as the law men seemed to decide their job here was all but done and left this self-proclaimed family matter to be dealt with by the family itself. Regan Tam was at least back on her feet now, though all her weight was leant on her husband. Jayne and River were glared at by the Sheriff 'til they lowered their weapons, and that seemed to satisfy him that all would be well.

Inara breathed a sigh of relief to know this whole situation was calming down, though she could not imagination any situation where Jayne Cobb came face to face with his all but evil in-laws ending in anything but disaster. He always spoke of them with such fury for what they had condemned his now-wife too, and he didn’t exactly think too much about the consequences of his actions, even these days when he was a family man.

“River, bao-bei.” Her father found a smile and made to take a step towards her, but she backed up that same step, hiding a little behind Jayne.

“No touching,” she said definitely. “No sweet names and painted smiles. You lied!” she told them angrily. “Abandoned, condemned, wrote off,” she reeled off their crimes against her in such a way as they barely understood, but that didn’t matter to River. “Not family anymore, not anything,” she said with a look of fiery determination.

Still her parents looked as if they were going to try and play nice, smooth things over, pretend it was all okay. Jayne weren’t about to stand for that, and neither was Danny.

“You come any closer to my wife and I’ll stick a bullet right ‘tween your eyes,” he declared, as his son came to stand by him.

“My Pa don’t miss,” said Danny definitely, having left Lena in Inara’s care a moment, “but if’n he did I’d take the next shot at ya,” he declared.

“No need,” said River behind the two of them, glaring daggers at Gabriel and Regan still. “She can do for herself,” she said angrily, before turning all sweetness and politeness in a second as she glanced between her husband and child, “thank you,” she added, making them both smile too.

“This is insanity,” declared Gabriel without hesitation. “You’re all... crazy,” he said, unable to find a suitable alternative for the word as he shook his head.

“Well, crazy is as crazy does, I reckon,” said a voice nobody had been expecting and all eyes turned to see Captain Malcolm Reynolds striding up behind the Tams, his gun out of its holster and pointed at the pair afore they even had a chance to react to the sight of him. “Now I’m all for a family reunion, if’n it’s what my mei mei here wants,” he said looking River’s way, “but seems to me you’re just about the last folks she was wanting to cross paths with on this here trip to find her lost boy.”

In spite of the fact he had just walked clear past Inara, Mal’s tone nor eyes never wavered enough that anyone woulda noticed. Weren’t that he hadn’t spotted her, but as always his romantical leanings had to take a back seat to the task at hand. They had a lot to talk about, no mistake there, but first off Mal had to put this family o’ his back together.

“Welcome back, sir,” said Zoe with a smile she couldn’t help as he came to stand beside her.

“Nice to be back, Zoe,” he replied in kind before turning his full attention back to the Tams. “Now, what say you take your wife and I take my crew and we go our separate ways, pretend like we never crossed paths, dong ma?”

Gabriel and Regan both seemed at a complete loss as to what to say next. Mal mighta felt bad about ordering them away from their kinfolk, but given what he knew, ‘bout how they’d come to leave River in that gorram hell of an Alliance Academy, how they was willin’ to disown the doc for tryin’ to help his sister, well, that was enough for Mal to decide he didn’t care one iota for what they was feelin’.

As for what the Captain himself felt, well he was running on pure adrenaline right now. Chances were good when he stopped and thought on it a minute he’d collapse to the floor with all his brain and body had been through this past while. That was then, this was now, and he still had to get everybody out of this without bullets being swapped.

“Who do you think you are?” asked Mr Tam, all high and mighty as these rich hwun-dahns tended to try to be - he didn’t bother Mal none.

“I’m Captain of a ship,” he said, head held high, “which ain’t so different to you bein’ father of a family,” he pointed out. “‘Course, I don’t screw up so bad my family wanna run screaming from me or threaten to put bullets in my head,” he added thoughtfully, “least not most o’ the time,” he added with a smile he couldn’t help as Zoe fought a similar expression at his side.

The Tams looked just about ready to argue when their eyes suddenly weren’t so focused on the Serenity crew.

“Wo Bu Shin Wo Dah Yan Jing!” said a voice over their heads, and all glanced back to see Simon approaching, white as a ghost and terribly out of breath, most like from the shock and the chasing down of Mal both.

“My son,” said Regan with further tears in her eyes and for all of a second the crew thought maybe Simon was going to react favourably to his parents.

River knew better, she knew his anger was as great as her own, his hate for those that had done them both wrong. He would no sooner be their son again than she would be their daughter. They were a hundred other roles now, father, mother, husband, wife, aunt, uncle, but never again the children of these monsters

“Captain,” said the doctor, his eyes eventually shifting from the Tam elders to Mal. “Who are these people?” he asked coldly and honestly Malcolm Reynolds had never been so proud to know the man.

“Couldn’t rightly say, doc,” he replied easily, over the top of whatever protestations they was trying to make. “Left the decision on whether we shoot ‘em or not up to ya sister. Don’t reckon on her wantin’ to waste the bullets on ‘em anyhow,” he said, eyes shifting down the row of people with him to little River, stood still and calm aside of her husband still.

Simon looked her way as well, sure she was feeling as much hatred if not more so for the part their parents played in her mental state, in all that she had suffered.

“Yes, I agree.” The doctor nodded, as his sister’s eyes met his own just briefly. “It would be a terrible waste,” he said, more to her than to anyone else, though he was sure she already knew what had to be done here.

She was a killer in the strictest sense of the word, but only because she had to be. She was programmed to be an assassin, it was true, but more than that she loved this new family that had been built aboard Serenity. Her husband, son, and so many others that she was bound to by everything but blood, she would fight to keep each one safe. When it was killed or be killed, she would deliver the necessary blow, the bullet, the wound that would ensure she was on the winning side of any such fight. Still, she would not use her skills today, not here on these people. They may be the monsters that condemned her to the Alliance scum that had all but destroyed her, but even good had come from that. Without the pain she had suffered, River was philosophical enough to realise she would not have the happiness she enjoyed now, never would have had her son, even if she was certain that somehow she would still have become Mrs Cobb one day.

Thoughts of the destiny she was always meant for brought an odd smile to the woman’s face as she stared unseeing at the man and woman she had once called Mommy and Daddy.

“Time to go,” she said, calm and measured in her words. “All present and accounted for,” she added, her eyes passing over both her son and Inara and finally landing on Mal.

He nodded his agreement in her decision. Sure, the Captain could shoot these folks dead for what they put their little girl through, and he knew Jayne would love to do the same, but it was better to do the smart thing here. Besides, though there had been fights aplenty ‘tween husband and wife on the topic, it had always been said that, in the unlikely event the crew ever did come across the elder Tams in a way such as this, it’d be River’s call alone on how they acted. Even Mal had agreed to that and would stick to it now as one by one the crew turned their backs on a couple they could not stand to look at a second longer and walked away.

They got barely a few feet when Regan called for both daughter and son. Simon refused to look back, but River knew she must.

“If they follow, track, stalk, plot,” she told them succinctly, “she _will_ waste bullets,” she said, a promise made then rather than a threat. “They will know what she suffered and more.” She nodded definitely before walking away for the final time, the sound of Regan Tam’s sobbing ringing in their ears and threats a plenty from Gabriel.

Didn’t matter not a jot to the Serenity crew, they done dealt which bigger and better people than a hwun-dahn like him. There was at least a moments pause now to think on what had happened here, for everything to catch up to everything else.

Mal started to feel the adrenaline that had got him here waver a bit, though it seemed only Zoe noticed him stumble some as they headed back to the ship. She stayed close to him just in case, though she never offered any kind of support, he knew it was there should he need it.

Jayne and River strode side by side back towards Serenity, whilst Inara brought up the rear, with Lena still taking much support from her. Simon was whispering questions about who she was and what was wrong with her, and though Danny had his concerns too, he also needed to talk to his folks about everything. He owed them an apology for runnin’ out like he had and he knew it now more’n ever. Still, no matter how fast he moved it seemed awkward at best to catch up to ‘em.

“Ma, Pa,” he got in front of them right by the ramp to re-board Serenity. “I’m sorry ‘bout-”

“Don’t talk to me, Danny, just don’t!” growled Jayne, pushing him easily out of his path and barely even glancing his way. “Glad you ain’t dead,” was all the kind words he got when his Pa glanced back at him, “but that don’t change nothin’ ‘bout how mad I am at you!” he added in a fury as he slammed up the ramp out of sight.

Behind them, Mal looked across at Inara, who shared a look with her man over the head of a still pale and shaking Lena. It seemed that Jayne’s sentiments to his son were echoed in the Captain’s eyes. Yes, he was glad enough to know Inara was back, but his temper was a force to be reckoned with at the very best of times. She had a lot of explaining to do, and she knew it, before she stood any chance at all of feeling welcome here in her home again.


	17. Chapter 17

Almost immediately after returning to the ship, Inara found the questions had started. Everyone wanted to know where she had been and why and all, and though she wanted so badly to explain, she knew the very first person she must have such a conversation with was Mal. Unfortunately, he was immediately summoned back to the infirmary by Simon and went more easily than he normally would in such a circumstance. Inara correctly assumed he had a want to be away from her until his temper cooled, and honestly she was grateful for that, but at the same time she now wanted to get this conversation over with, if only so she knew where she stood for sure.

Wash had offered to take her on the mule to fetch her shuttle and to that Inara had agreed. Kaylee came along with plans to fly the second shuttle back from where Danny had left it, and though both her dear friends were pleased to have the Companion back, neither spoke much on the journey. It was hard for them, Inara understood that. They were caught between two people they loved so much, wanting badly to show her affection, she was certain of it, most especially her mei mei, but Kaylee loved her Captain as if he were her own father and he had been so hurt by Inara’s leaving.

The sanctuary of her shuttle was a pleasant relief for a little while, and yet it was only when Inara brought it back to Serenity and re-attached that she truly felt she was home. This was where her family lie, even if the only people who seemed entirely genuine in their joy at her return were the young children who knew no better. They did not yet understand taking sides in an argument or similar, they only knew they loved each of their parents, aunts, and uncles, and wouldn’t want to lose a single one. The adults were diplomatic at best, refusing to pass judgement on the situation until it had been properly figured out between those in the middle of it.

So came the moment when Mal arrived at the shuttle door, not thirty seconds after it was reattached to the ship, his expression asking a hundred questions and conveying many more feelings and emotions without him ever having to open his mouth.

“Mal,” Inara breathed as she rose from her seat and came to stand before him. “I’ve been such a fool, and I am eternally sorry,” she told him, honest as she ever had been as far as her lover could tell, though her apology didn’t change how much she’d hurt him by running out without so much as a word of goodbye.

“I gotta know one thing ‘fore you say anything else to me,” he told her sternly, eyes locked onto her own. “We hadn’t stumbled across you on Persephone, would you be here now?”

“Yes, Mal,” she promised him. “Oh, run-tse duh fwo-tzoo, yes. I was here at the docks with plans to send a wave when I overheard that Daniel was in trouble,” she explained, so desperate for him to understand, to believe what she was telling him, because it was the complete and honest truth.

It took a moment but only a moment for his expression to soften some. Sure, she’d upped and left, but she was comin’ back and that gave Mal some hope. Not that he’d tell a gorram soul in the ‘verse but it was the thought she might just be back here ‘cause she’d been found and caught that was scaring the hell outta him right now. If she wanted to come back then her goin’ was her big mistake. Didn’t mean he understood any more why she bolted or hurt any less that she had, but she meant to be here now, and that weren’t nothin’. Sure as the worlds turned he was happy as a clam just to know she weren’t dead, nor hurt or captured at least. In a moment he had hoped to stave off a might longer, Mal grabbed Inara by the upper arms, pulling her hard against him and kissing her like it was going out of style. For all of a minute she got her chance to revel in the feeling of being here in his embrace again, to allow herself to drown a moment in the sensations only he could evoke within her by way of a single intense kiss. Unfortunately, that moment ended all too abruptly and Inara found herself feeling strangely cold and alone when Mal moved just a step back away from her, no contact between them.

“Ain’t gonna pretend I ain’t glad you’re here,” he told her. “You’d know better anyhow, but we got a talk to be havin’ afore we go any further down this road we set out on,” he explained, at which Inara nodded her agreement.

“I should have told you the truth in the first place, Mal, I should’ve explained myself instead of running away,” she said, looking plenty shameful he noticed. “I behaved no better than one of the children might have.”

“Danny proved that,” her man agreed, shifting around, not sure whether he wanted to be sittin’ or standin’ or what right now. “Done a pretty good exit stage left his ownself, same day as you. Almost thought you two had plans o’ some kind.”

“Mal, of course not,” Inara assured him. “I would never take the boy from his parents, and I certainly wouldn’t-”

“Never mind what you wouldn’t be doin’,” he interrupted, making a motion with his hand to cut off whatever she was about to say. “Can’t be doin’ with no more ifs and buts. Just wanna know what went on in that pretty head o’ yours made you up and run away like you did,” he asked her. “Now you tell me plain, Inara, just what had you runnin’ for the hills, so I can make some sense o’ what the gorram ‘verse is goin’ on here.”

Inara took a deep breath and hoped the words would just come naturally, but still she struggled. So overwhelmed was she by the joy of being home and at the same time worry at seeing anger in Mal’s eyes, she could make sense of little to nothing right now. As it was her hormones were not exactly as balanced as they should be, a clear sign of the pregnancy she now had to explain and hope for the best. She may yet be forced to leave this place again, though she could hardly imagine Mal would want to send her away in such a state. He tried to pretend he was some kuh-ooh duh lao bao-jurn but he was in fact one of the best men Inara had never known her whole life. He could not abandon her in such a condition, she then only had to fear that he would allow her to stay out of duty and never really love her again as he had before.

“Still waitin’, ‘Nara?” he prompted when she gave him no answer and only stared off into nothingness a long moment.

“I wish you wouldn’t look at me as if I were one of the children, Mal,” she complained as her eyes met his.

“Acted mighty childish boltin’ outta here without givin’ anyone so much as the time of day,” he said, anger bubbling just beneath the surface. “Thought we agreed on that.”

“How exactly did you expect me to behave?” she snapped back at him, losing her calm one piece at a time, and all too quickly. “After your great impassioned speech about being a wonderful uncle but never wishing to be a father!” she almost yelled, as tears filled her eyes.

Mal opened his mouth to yell back a retort but stopped short of any words actually escaping his lips. Two or three times he opened and closed his mouth like a landed fish, not a single sound coming out as he processed what Inara had said and made the only sense of it he could.

“Huh,” he said after a long pause. “You... We havin’ a baby?” he asked her then, looking all kinds of bemused and shocked.

“Yes, Mal,” she admitted, fighting to find her voice through all the thick emotion that stuck in her throat. “I am pregnant,” she confessed at last, hoping to feel a huge weight being lifted off her shoulders then, but it didn’t happen.

In Mal’s eyes she saw what she feared most, unwavering anger and disappointment. For what exactly these emotions tended, she wasn’t certain, but she hated them all the same. Had things been different, had she told him the truth in the first place, there was a chance things might have been better, different, happier, but now she would never know for sure.

“And this made you wanna run away from me?” her lover asked her, tone cold as ice still.

“No,” came Inara’s quick answer, followed by another just as fast. “Yes. I just didn’t know how you’d react,” she tried to explain herself. “I just-”

“You, what, Inara?” he interrupted, volume rising with every question asked next as his temper boiled over. “Tell me what you thought? That I was gonna toss you out? Not care about you no more? Maybe decide to tell you it’s me or the young ‘un?” he asked her, more livid than she had ever seen him. “Is that what you think of me?!” he exploded in such a way she might’ve been scared to death were it not for the fact she knew he would never do her any harm in such a way.

“No!” she cried hopelessly, realising now more than ever how her behaviour made things look - he was right and she had no way to argue.

His eyes and tone both softened a little at the sight of her tears, but he was still terribly upset. Inara understood that, of course she did, but there was no way they were going to have a conversation about it right now.

“Well then, you wanna come stand where I am a while,” he told her sadly. “’Cause it surely looks that way from here.”

With that he left, striding away from her in anger and pain that broke Inara’s heart. Mal was all she ever wanted in a man and right now what they had before seemed irretrievable, especially if they could not even talk about it. Right now she felt far more lost than she ever had out alone in the black. She cried.

* * *

“Uncle Simon?” said Danny too quietly from beyond the Infirmary door. “How’s she doin’?” he asked of Lena who was sat on the edge of the bed being checked over still.

“I’m sittin’ right here, y’know?” She smiled, seemingly much better.

“And you’re going to be just fine, as far I can tell,” Simon promised her with a smile. “I can’t see any physical injuries or cause for concern in your vitals.”

“So, I just got me a weird gift o’ passin’ out when other folks gets pissed at each other?” she asked with a lop-sided grin. “Hey, that’s gonna get fun.”

Danny smiled at that though the expression lasted barely a few seconds before it was gone again. Simon looked between the two young people, a frown forming on his features. They liked each other, even he could see that, but where everybody went from here was much more complicated than teenage crushes and feelings. River had been so hurt by Daniel’s running away, but Jayne seemed worse effected somehow. Perhaps with her Reader abilities she at least had some assurances her boy would be back, or perhaps it had more to do with him blaming himself for fighting with his son and making him want to leave as he had.

“A hundred an’ one reasons for them to be mad with me, Uncle Simon,” said the younger man in the doorway as he felt the loud and clear thoughts flying through the doctor’s mind. “Can’t say as I blame ‘em much, but Pa won’t even let me explain myself.” He sighed.

“Your father is a proud man, Daniel,” said a voice behind him, and he turned to see Shepherd Book stood there, “but he does love you a great deal. Given enough time, he will see the sense in forgiving you for your... disappearing act.” He smiled wryly. “In any case, I actually came to tell our new guest,” he said, looking to Lena as Simon let her hop down off the exam table. “I have made up a bed for you in the passenger quarters, as it seems you may be staying with us a while.”

“Thank you, sir,” she said with a polite nod that made Book chuckle.

“We don’t stand on ceremony here, child,” he assured her. “You can call me Book, just as everybody else does.”

She smiled at the acceptance he showed her, at the genorosity and kindness each of the crew had expressed already for a girl they never did meet before. Seemed to her it was like any friend o’ Danny’s was a friend o’ theirs, and that gave Lena some hope. She had no want to go back to Hecate. Chances were good that her Ma, or the woman she’d always called that, well, she’d have her hide if she come back now with no real reason for her goin’. ‘Sides, it took but a few minutes aboard this ship for Serenity to make her feel at home, like she never would wanna leave, the whole course of her life.

“Hey!” a little voice below her had Lena back from a misty land of thought into reality and she looked down to find Danny’s little sister Jessy pulling on her clothes to get attention. “You gonna be my new sister now?” she asked, at which the usually confidant Abylene found a blush rising in her cheeks.

“Well, I dunno about that,” she said awkwardly, her eyes meeting Danny’s a moment and shifting away just as fast. “I, er, I’d like to stay a while and get to know you folks though. Serenity seems like an awful nice place to live.” She smiled down at the little girl who grinned back at her so wide, her face was like as not to split in two from it, or so Lena reckoned.

“Come on, I’ll show you the whole boat!” Jessy enthused. “A proper tour, like nobody else could give ya!” she yelled, grabbing Lena’s hand and fair dragging her away.

Danny watched them go with a smile forming on his lips. Everybody he loved was here, and whilst most had been afore he ever left, it’d been worth the goin’ and comin’ back to have Abylene here. She was the missing piece in a big ass puzzle that made his life complete. Sure, he was kinda young to be thinkin’ on marriage and all, but he’d sure like for her to be Jessy’s new sister some day...

* * *

“Bear with a sore head,” said River as she watched Jayne move around their bunk, apparently looking for something he couldn’t find as he slammed through drawers and rattled everything around in the trunk at the foot of the bed.

“Ain’t in the mood for no riddles, River, so don’t you be startin’ in on that with me, you hear?” he snapped at his wife, still making a bother about bein’ busy with things even he knew his ownself weren’t nothing to nobody.

“Incomprehensible anger,” she said plainly, cutting into his path the moment he tried to cross the room past her again. “Mules are less stubborn,” she told him angrily, pushing her hands flat against his chest to stop him moving.

They both knew he could pick her up and move her easy enough. Sure, she could fight back, but rough and tumble was their thing, wouldn’t do each other no harm that’d matter. Weren’t worth it though, all the fight went outta Jayne when his eyes met the great brown pools of River’s own. He was bein’ a stubborn ass, and he knew it, but there was no other way that Jayne knew to react to such a situation. He didn’t do emotional and feelin’ stuff, not that nobody but River ever saw anyhow, just weren’t his way o’ bein’. Truth be known, Danny’s leavin’ had only made him so mad ‘cause it hurt so gorram much. Others might’ve figured that was the problem, only his wife knew it for certain, readin’ the thoughts clean out of his head as she often did. Saved Jayne sayin’ a lot o’ stuff he’d rather not, always had, so he never minded, not even a bit.

“They hurt for each and the other,” she said sadly. “Her soldiers should not fight against, but side by side. From the beginning and before the end is to come,” she said definitely. “One has to move first, and older and wiser is called upon to be what he is.”

Jayne knew she was right. He was tryin’ to teach Danny to be a man and hidin’ away sulking and grousin’ weren’t no way to behave. They had to have some serious kind of a talk about why the boy had left, ‘bout the way he’d acted, and right and wrong an’ all. Nothin’ weren’t ever gonna get solved if’n they sat in two different rooms all day, just wishin’ they was in the same one and talkin’ anyhow.

“Heart beats louder and stronger with love than any drum of fear or screaming anger.” River smiled, fingers running over her husband’s chest where said heart resided.

“How you always know what to gorram say to me when I’m mad?” he asked her, unable to keep from smiling his ownself as he held her there in his arms.

“Genius,” she said simply, shrugging her shoulders.

“More’n that,” Jayne told her, planting a kiss on her lips. “ _My_ genius.”

“Always and forever so,” she agreed, “but they have two more, and one of two is darkest blue as midnight seas,” she reminded her man.

Jayne’s hand slid around River’s own as he nodded in agreement of what he knew she wanted. They had to have this talk with Danny, straighten things out. Swallowing pride and keeping his anger in check weren’t things Jayne did so well, but he’d try for her and for their boy. Despite appearance, he was glad to have his son back aboard this ship, more glad maybe than he’d ever let on to anyone, but that was just the way it was with Jayne Cobb.

River knew that better than anyone;

“Like father, like son.”


	18. Chapter 18

“Pa, Ma.” Danny smiled as he felt their presence behind him and spun around on his seat at the table in the galley to see them there. “Was wantin’ to talk to ya so bad,” he told them at which River smiled.

“They know,” she assured him, pulling him up from his seat so she could hug him tight to her. “Could tan your hide as old fashioned mothers would for running without words of goodbye,” she told him, not sounding quite as stern as perhaps she ought to as they held each other tight a while, “but she is glad to have her boy back, and in his one whole piece too.” She smiled as they parted.

Danny’s eyes went straight to Jayne who was taking a seat at the table, a distance from his son who was still hovering at the end. River sat between the two men in her life, hoping to play peace-maker in this. She trusted no shots to be fired but that was about all she did believe about this confrontation. Though her family were kind and caring, one and all, each had a violent streak, herself included. There was only so much control each Cobb had over the anger inside and when let out things might end badly for all.

“I wanna say that I know what I did was wrong,” said Danny, looking shame faced and barely lifting his eyes to meet Jayne’s own. “Running off like I did just proved I was a kid when I was wantin’ to show ya I could be a man and all,” he told both his parents, “but you also gotta know that I learned a whole lot out there. Might not o’ been gone from here long but I did just fine for that time, took care o’ myself and Lena-”

“Like gorram hell you did!” Jayne scoffed. “Landed yourself in jail soon as ya got here!”

“And got myself out just the same!” Danny yelled back across the table at him, immediately wishing he hadn’t when his Pa glared at him somethin’ fierce. “I didn’t do a perfect job, I know it. I gotta lot to learn, but you wouldn’t even give me the chance,” he told his parents in earnest. “Can’t keep me in a box forever treatin’ me like a kid, not no more,” he insisted, and as mad as Jayne might like to be he also knew the boy was right.

River knew it too and though she felt as conflicted as her husband on this, Daniel had a point that could not be ignored. He wanted to be a man, and she understood that. At seventeen, the crew took a good while to see her as an adult, not least because the things she had suffered at the hands of the Alliance had left her in a vulnerable state much of the time. Those evil people had also robbed her of her innocence and childhood.

“Caught in limbo,” she recalled aloud her own state of being back then and saw the feelings she had felt as a teen reflected in Danny’s eyes now. “Not a child, not yet grown. Growing pains amplify, so loud as to deafen,” she said, reaching out a hand to her son’s face and smiling before turning her attention to Jayne. “Have to cut the apron strings,” she told him, and though her husband looked less than certain about what she was saying, she knew deep down he agreed.

“Older you get, less choice I’m gonna get about what you do, I reckon,” he said, staring hard at Danny. “So whilst I got your attention, you listen good,” he warned the boy, pointing a finger his way. “If, and that’s a mighty big if, but if me and your Ma square it with Mal to let you come on any jobs and such, you will do just exactly what you get told, dong ma?”

“Yes, sir,” said Danny with a grin as wide as his face, but Jayne weren’t done yet and said so immediately.

“Hey, you wanna be a man, it ain’t all your way,” he warned him. “You’re gonna get a man’s share o’ the chores too, responsibilities you gotta take care of, else you won’t get not an ounce a respect from no-one here, and you’ll answer to Mal as well as us for not pullin’ your weight.”

“I understand, Pa,” said Danny with a definite nod, a warmth in his heart that weren’t exactly to be expected when someone was tellin’ you about all the work you was gonna have to do.

Truth of it was, this speech was all Danny had wanted from the get go when this whole sorry mess had started. At sixteen, he thought he’d get his chance to be a man, but still he was mothered and fussed like a kid. At seventeen very little changed, ‘ceptin’ he started getting told off if he acted babyish and yet was still kept away from anythin’ too dangerous for a kid to be involved in. It’d frustrated him to no end, and though runin’ off like he had maybe wasn’t his finest hour, he had at least proven to his folks that he was grown up enough to be a bigger part of the crew than they’d let him be so far.

“Our boy will be a good man.” River smiled, seeing the happy thoughts that danced through her son’s head. “Just as his Pa is,” she added, turning to Jayne, her hand on his arm making him shift his gaze to her.

He knew she was right and that he’d made them happy, her and Danny both. Still, didn’t sit so well with Jayne that he was agreeing to his kid maybe gettin’ in the line of fire, but he also didn’t want his boy bein’ no pansy ass like the doc used to be once upon a time. Kid had picked up a gun and pretty much saved his life first few days he was aboard the gorram boat, and from that day to this had been kept away from violence and guns unless it was well-advised target practice and such. Looking at him now, overly tanned and dressed similar to Jayne himself with muscles showin’, there was no doubtin’ that Danny was growin’ up to be a man, just like his Pa. ‘Bout time he got treated as one, Jayne reckoned, however much he kinda wished the boy had stayed a kid a while longer.

“So, will you shake my hand like a man, Pa?” asked Daniel as he got to his feet and rounded the table, offering his hand for the shake he spoke of.

Jayne contemplated it for a moment before grabbing the young man, pulling him from a handshake to a manly type hug.

“Always gonna be my boy, Danny,” he told him gruffly, “no matter how much of a man you get to be.”

“ _Our_ boy,” River corrected from the table, rolling her eyes. “Been saying so for years now,” she said more to herself then anyone else since they didn’t hardly seem to notice that she even spoke at all!

This was how Lena found the little family as she walked into the galley. Jessy had abandoned their tour somewhere around the crew’s bunks, saying she had a problem to fix. It had all come so sudden, Lena could only think the little girl had picked up somethin’ outta a mind that weren’t hers somewhere around the place. She didn’t question it, just went to seek out Danny and felt all kinds of awkward when she found him with his folks, straightenin’ things out.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said as she turned in the doorway to leave just as fast as she arrived.

“No, Lena, don’t go,” Danny called after her, rushing to grab her hand so she wouldn’t leave.

The smile he gave her was enough to convince her she was welcome, that and the overwhelming feeling of warmth that seemed to radiate from the whole family as she was encouraged further into the galley. From all she’d seen, Danny’s family, both blood kin and not, seemed like friendly enough folks, and in his parents she saw where Danny got his looks and his kindness as she stood afore them now.

“Ma, Pa,” Danny introduced, his hand still around Lena’s own, “this here is Abylene,” he told them, at which she nodded her head in greeting.

“Mr Cobb, Mrs Cobb,” she said politely, casing Jayne’s lips to quirk into a half a smile.

“We don’t stand none of ceremony here, girly,” he told her, gesturing for her to sit down as they did the same. “And you’re looking a might better than last I saw, fallin’ all over m’boy here,” he said, causing a blush to rise in Lena’s cheeks.

She wasn’t given a chance to explain herself though, nor say a word as River’s hand came across the table and covered Lena’s own.

“She is special, bright and shining.” The older woman smiled. “ut feels too much,” she winced a little, as if feeling pain that was not her own.

“Yeah.” Lena nodded, expecting to feeling awkward and yet not so much as she looked up at three pairs of eyes all looking right back at her. “Guessin’ I should start my tale from the beginning, huh?” she said with a nervous smile, hoping that by the end of this she was as accepted as every other crew member before her had been.

She worried how she would get along, if she would even be permitted to stay. All she could do for now was state her case and see what happened.

* * *

“On guard!” Mal heard a little voice shout beyond the door of his bunk.

He had been sat alone in silent reverie, trying to calm down and think about everything he and Inara had said. She was having his baby, that was a hell of a lot to take in for the both of them, and though they were both old enough to know better, she had bolted from the whole ship, and on hearing of the secret she had kept from him, Mal had let his pride rule him and stormed out on her without a word. He was just trying to decide if it was more important for him to be the bigger man, or for Inara to come to him and apologise some more first, when the clattering and banging above his door started up, followed by the yelling in children’s voices.

“Take that, and that!” said the only male voice which had to be Nathaniel as Mal ascended the ladder, almost getting clobbered by the boy and Alyssa faking a sword fight with two wooden sticks right by the hatch.

“What in the gorram verse are you two doin’?” he asked crossly, not at all amused by either the noise nor the violence he was facing here.

“They’re fightin’ for my honour,” said Jessy, fluttering her eyelashes like some kinda damsel.

Mal was about to yell at the kids for making noise and causing a fuss but did a double take when he realised the scene bein’ play acted right in front of him was a strange kinda familiar. Sure, the events he was recalling happened long before any of these here little ones was born, but they’d heard the tale of it from Inara, he was gorram certain. Anyhow, the way things was with Jessamine Cobb, chances were good she’d read all the details clean outta his head or his lover’s at some point or other, Mal figured.

Course their plan had been to make him think, make him remember days long before when he’d do anything for Inara, including get himself all but killed in a sword fight for the sake of her honour. It was all meant to remind Uncle Mal how much he loved Aunt ‘Nara, so they would make up and be happy again. It was all the kids wanted, and they planned to see to it they got it too.

Over at Aunt Inara’s shuttle, Persephone Tam toddled in through the door, dropping down the steps and hurrying over to the bed where the Companion sat looking forlornly into a box of trinkets. She was usually such a strong woman but right now she was sure she looked terribly weak. It wasn’t anything that could be helped. She knew she was going to wind up hurting Mal in all of this and it was just what she had done - she hated that.

“Aunt ‘Nara?” the little voice of her niece caught her attention suddenly, she’d had no idea the girl was there 'til then. “Why don’t you love Uncle Mal no more?” she asked, eyes wide with innocence and close to teary too, as far as Inara could tell.

“Oh, mei mei.” She sighed, putting down her box and picking the little girl up into her arms - the very picture of Kaylee in miniature form. “I do love your Uncle Mal, very much,” Inara promised her. “It’s just... Well, grown up relationships are complicated, sweetie.”

“Nuh-uh.” Persephone shook her head, blonde pig tails swinging around her head. “You love him, he loves you. Mama says love is most important in the whole ‘verse,” she said, spreading her arms wide as she could to show the vastness of the world she spoke of.

“Your mother is right, nyen ching-duh,” said Inara as she hugged the little girl close and kissed the top of her head, glancing up when she heard movement in the doorway.

Her eyes met Mal’s immediately and Persephone took the moment as her cue to go. She reached up to plant a wet kiss on Aunt Inara’s cheek then scrambled down off her lap and ran out of the door, squeezing past Mal with not a word, just a giggle that she couldn’t help as she went.

“Got a weird feelin’ we just been set up,” said the Captain as he heard Jessy tell her cousin ‘good job’ and the sound of little feet in big boots clanging off down the corridor.

“I think it’s very sweet that they care so much about us,” his lover said with a smile that wavered just a little when her eyes returned to meet Mal’s gaze.

“And I reckon they’re a meddlesome bunch o’ critters!” he called behind the kids, his words meant to bother them more than anything else, not thinking about how Inara might react to those words.

“And you wonder why I never told you about our child?” she sighed sadly, seeing when he looked her way again that he was sorry to ever have given her such an impression of himself.

“You know I love them kids like my own kin,” he said definitely as he moved to sit down on the couch closer to her. “Though I guess I got some idea why you thought maybe I wasn’t exactly the fatherly type, wouldn’t exactly be a good role model-”

“Mal, that wasn’t it at all,” Inara told him definitely as she faced him. “My only concern was that parenthood was the very last thing you would want,” she tried to explain. “We never had such a conversation, I had no way to know how you might react-”

“Ya never did ask,” he interrupted just as she had done, though neither was yelling nor even particularly angry right now, just tired and disappointed, wishing this could be resolved somehow, and fast. “See, 'til you come back and told me how things was, can’t say as I ever thought much on fatherhood,” he explained. “Always thought you wasn’t wantin’ so much to be a mother.” He shrugged.

Inara smiled at that.

“To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t entirely certain myself,” she agreed, “but when I realised I was with child...” she told him, her smile growing wider as her hand went absently to her stomach that was barely swollen at all yet. “I so want this family, Mal,” she implored him to understand, and was practically holding her breath as he rose from his seat and came over to her, sinking down to sit on the bed beside her.

“Well, that’ll work out good then,” he told her, taking her other hand in his. “’Cause I been thinkin’ on it, and it sounds like a damn fine plan to me.” He smiled down at her, noting tears forming in her eyes and hoping they was of joy rather than sadness of any kind.

“Oh, Mal,” she said, voice quivering with sheer emotion. “I’m so sorry I ran away like a child, I should’ve talked to you-”

“Hush, now, no need for that,” he insisted, knowing already how guilty she felt and not needin’ a bit of it. “Let’s not talk about things that was, concentrate on this future we gotta be plannin’,” he told her, catching one lone tear that escaped down her cheek and wiping it carefully away with his fingers. “You and me gonna have us a child, and that’s gonna take a whole lot of gettin’ used to.” He laughed, almost nervously at the very idea, as she did the same.

“Things aren’t going to be the same, Mal,” she warned him, apparently even now still worried about things going horribly wrong.

“No, that they ain’t,” he said softly, as he held her in his arms and pulled her closer. “Only gonna get better,” he promised her, as their lips met, and in that moment Inara had never believed anything so completely in the whole of her life.


	19. Epilogue

“You sure you alright, Danny?” asked Jayne as they walked back up the ramp and into Serenity’s cargo bay, the younger man wincing a little as he hefted the bag on his shoulder a little higher.

“Just a scratch, Pa,” he insisted, still dropping the loot just as fast as he could to prevent his shoulder throbbing anymore than it had to. “I’ll get Uncle Simon to clean it up in a spell.”

“You see that you do, Danny,” insisted Zoe as she headed up the steps towards the bridge. “Don’t want nothin’ ending up septic and fallin’ off on account of one measly job, dong ma?”

“Understood,” he called back to her, finding that though the rest of the crew that had been on the mission with them had dispersed, his father still remained. “You okay, Pa?” he checked.

“Just want you to know... you did good today, son,” he told him with a half-smile, ruffling the boy’s hair before striding away.

Danny smiled at the gesture that used to bug him a lot. Sure’n he weren’t a boy no more, age of eighteen and then some, but he didn’t mind so much that his Pa still treated him that way sometimes. When it mattered he got to be a man and do a man’s work, like he had today. Uncle Mal would be awful pleased with the way things’d gone in town, and his Ma would be as gorram proud as anyone that he done well on another job.

“Warmth of happiness is just bustin’ outta you like sunshine,” said a voice then, making Danny look up with an even wider grin that he’d been wearing before if it were possible.

“Lena,” he said as he walked over to meet her, not entirely surprised by the sight of a baby in her arms. “How’s Aunt ‘Nara doin’?”

“’Bout as well as anyone does takin’ care of a newborn an’ all, I reckon.” She shrugged. “I figured maybe she and the Cap’n could use some shut-eye, I offered to play baby-sitter a while, give the little princess here the full on tour.” She smiled down at the bundle in her arms, all wrapped up in a pale pink blanket.

“They any closer to agreein’ on a name yet?” asked Danny as the pair of them walked through to the galley.

“I don’t reckon,” chuckled Lena. “How was your job? You get what you went for?” she checked.

“Yeah, and more besides,” he said with a look as his hand went to the opposite shoulder and he showed her the graze he’d won as a result of the usual shoot out.

“Geez, your Uncle Simon never does get a break, huh?” she said with a frown.

“Meh, he loves his work.” Danny shrugged, using just the one shoulder that didn’t ache like hell. “’Sides what he can’t fix I’m gorram sure somebody could kiss better for me anyhow,” he winked at her, making Lena smile as they reached the comfortable area beyond the galley.

The kids were all runnin’ around playin’ games there, watched over by Book who was sat on the couch with his Bible. He was perfectly placed and entirely willin’ to take the baby off Lena’s hands when she appeared with the now struggling infant,

“How about I give you a break there, child,” he offered, something she was grateful for now Danny was home to spend time with her.

“She’s awful sweet,” said Lyssa as she and the other children came bounding over to see baby Reynolds.

“She sure is,” agreed Lena, before turning her full attention to Danny, grabbing his hand and pulling him a few steps back, around the corner into the galley, where the kids were less likely to see. “Now, you said somethin’ about kissin’,” she reminded him with a look that spoke volumes.

“Yes, ma’am,” said Danny, mindful to shut the door tight behind them before he allowed himself to be pulled closer, covering Lena’s lips with his own.

Often times when he’d been out on a job, she’d be eager to get close to him, Danny noticed. He figured she was just afraid he wouldn’t come back one of these times. One day maybe she’d understand that was like as not never gonna happen, not for a good while yet, but he didn’t mind so much that she had a yearnin’ for this kinda thing when he come home to her.

Down the hall, Jayne and River were headed in the direction of the teens, only to stop short of the opposite galley door.

“No,” she insisted, pulling her husband back around the corner. “Can’t go,” she told him, pulling the door almost to closed, all quiet like.

“I’m gorram hungry, woman,” Jayne told her crossly, sure he didn’t know why she’d keep him from his food.

“Hunger of all kinds exists there,” she explained in the way that only River could. “In all directions...” She smiled almost wickedly as she felt a dozen feelings that were not her own but made her happy nonetheless. “Under the view of stars that shine, beneath the beating heart, and closer,” she said, her eyes returning to meet her husbands as he took in her words and frowned some.

“You meanin’ everybody else is gettin’ sexed but us?” he said, blunt as he always was, but his wife was well used to that after so many years.

“Eloquent as ever.” She rolled her eyes as she leant back against the wall as if she was fixin’ to melt right away into it. “Romance blooms like flowers all around,” she said dreamily. “So bright and beautiful.” She smiled, making Jayne do the same as he leant over her.

“You talkin’ bout love or your ownself now?” he asked with a smirk, at which she giggled girlishly.

“Love,” she assured him, “but she thanks you, kind sir,” she made to curtsey like a lady would but barely managed it as he pretty much had her pinned against the wall by now, not that she minded that at all.

Beyond the galley, Lena giggled loud enough to be heard, and Daniel’s parents could guess what was going on in there.

“Remember when we was young and all over each other like that?” said Jayne, looking down at his wife.

“She is still young,” River teased him, her hand over her heart, continuing before he had a chance to protest at her choice of words. “Both are still a great fan of their conjugal rights, and pleasures derived from such things,” she said, her arms moving up around his neck and ensuring he went no further away than this incredibly close position they found themselves in.

“Well, whilst the kids is occupied...?” said Jayne with a look she well understood and appreciated right now, his hands through clothing just not satisfying enough, his lips now at her neck making her shiver in the best way.

“She concurs,” she said breathlessly. “An excellent plan.”

At the sound of her agreement, Jayne swung his wife up into his arms as if she weighed no more than a feather, fixin’ to carry her away to their bunk and ravish her for as long as they could last at it. Before they quite had a chance to turn and leave, there was a sound from the galley beyond.

“Oh, Danny,” gasped Lena, not meaning for anyone else to hear, of course.

Jayne grinned a dirty grin and began walking away with River in his arms, clinging on tight to the man she would always love.

“That’s my boy,” he said proudly, at which she rolled her eyes again.

“ _Our_ boy,” she corrected, not for the first time, and most likely not the last either.


End file.
